Ep. 371: Is it Finally Time to Leave Social Media?

Two days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I sent a short essay to my newsletter. I wrote it in about 15 minutes, but it was about as as raw or as pointed as I ever get. The essay started like this. Those of us who study online culture like the use of the phrase, Twitter is not real life. But as we saw yet again this week, when the digital discourses fostered on services like Twitter or Blue Sky or TikTok do intersect with the real world, whether they originate from the left or the right, the results are often horrific.

This should tell us all we need to know about these platforms. They are toxic and dehumanizing. They are responsible as much as any other force for the unraveling of civil society that seems to be accelerating. Alright, then later in the essay, I reach the following conclusion. After troubling national events, there's often a public conversation about the appropriate way to respond.

Well, here's one option to consider. Quit using these social platforms. Find other ways to keep up with the news or spread ideas or be entertained. Be a responsible grown-up who does useful things, someone who serves real people in the real world. In the over two decades or so that I've been writing that newsletter, I don't think I've ever received as large or as positive of a response as I did for that post.

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