Social Media is Evil (Or at least very problematic)
I am back!
The turn of the season from summer into Fall means a return to blogging for myself (and Stu).
I want to begin by taking a look at the dangers of social media -- Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, X, or whatever other sites would fall under this broad heading.
Let me start my thoughts with a wise but cryptic statement by the Canadian thinker Marshall McLuhan in 1964,
“The medium is the message.”
This quote encapsulates the intention of his book from which this quote arises, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McLuhan’s desire was to demonstrate that a message when conveyed cannot be reduced merely to the message (or locutionary act) delivered. The medium we use plays a significant role in the communicative act. The medium we choose communicates as much or more about what we are trying to communicate than the message we deliver through it. The medium shapes and controls the way the originator of the message (illocution) is received by the receiver of the message (perlocution). Thus, the medium by which a communicative act is delivered changes the message being communicated and thereby changes the way in which the deliverer and receiver of the message relate to one another.
Now fast forward to 2020 and an article written by D. C. Schindler, a Catholic scholar, entitled “Social Media is Hate Speech: A Platonic Reflection on Contemporary Misology.”
A couple of things to note about the title before I go too far which may help with what I will say about it.
By “Platonic” Schindler is referring to Plato’s thought, particularly, in this case, to Phaedo, a dialogue written by Plato in which he and Socrates discuss the immortality of the soul and the afterlife in the hours before the latter's death.
By “Misology” (NB: not “missology” which is the study of missions) he is referring to “the hatred of logos” or the hatred of words / speech / reason which Plato believes to be the worst possible evil.
For Plato, Schindler argues, misology represents “a kind of suicide, a destruction of one’s own nature.” It is the intellectual equivalent of killing yourself. Why? Because it shows contempt for that which is basic to humanity, and second, because it is a retreat from “all the good things outside of the self.” Suicide is the ultimate physical decision to retreat fully from the world. Misology is the ultimate intellectual act of retreating from the real world. It places the self above reality.
In social media Schindler sees misology of the highest order. He writes,
“There is a misology already in the form of social media, to the extent that it is used, not just for an occasional passing on of information when other means are lacking, but as a basic “place” of social interaction, a fundamental point of reference in communal life. There is a profound sort of cultural suicide occurring in this phenomenon.”
This is all rather dangerous one very simple reason. As Schindler notes,
“Human nature… is defined by its relation to logos; a change in the way we understand the nature of words and [how we] relate to them will have a profound impact on our interpretation of human nature, and therefore on how we live tout court (plain and simple).
In other words, since “the medium is the message” and social media hates words / speech / reason the more time we spend on social media the more our humanity changes because it is not reality.
Think about the lies social media tells.
It tells us that we are part of a community whenever we are on its app, but we all know we are not. There is no such thing as an online ‘community.’ There is only embodied community.
It tells us that our participation in the app is neutral and beneficial, that it truly reflects us and those with whom we interact. But when participating in our app of choice we are dealing with fake versions of people and projecting edited versions of ourselves. Thus a new culture is created every time we log on and interact with someone else's post. We do not put our foot into the same social media river each time we log on. To quote another famous Greek philosopher.
Social media welcomes us to bang away at our keyboard with all sorts of words, but then loses them in a cascade of responses. Words are encouraged and discarded usually within seconds.
Social media tells us our words are needed but then seduces us with images and videos so we abandon words altogether and become passive consumers rather than interactive communicators.
The real problem with social media, as Plato would see it, is that it does not connect us to the real world. As misology it cannot. It is an image of something but reality is not the something that it reveals. Let me use an example. When a person plays a video game they know, at least I hope they do, that they are playing a video game. They don’t equate reality with what they are doing within whatever environment they find themselves. When we log into our favorite social media app we are fundamentally doing the same thing as when we enter into a video game environment. BUT most people log in without recognizing that they are not in reality anymore. They have entered an alternate reality. A manufactured one. An ever-changing one. A manipulated one. When logging on to social media you have separated yourself from reality which is a form of misology. Which is, as Plato identified earlier, the suicide of the thinking self.
In Phaedrus Socrates criticizes writers, those who communicate by writing vs those who communicate via speech. (NB: Plato lived in the transition from oral communication as the fundamental means of passing on knowledge to writing as its fundamental form). Socrates sees anticipates a significant problem with writing as the major form of communication,
“you [the writer] provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.”
It is almost as if Socrates was speaking about our time! Plato’s point is this. When you remove the individual from the communicative act -- a face you observe, a body you can watch while it is speaking, tone and inflection in the voice you can hear, etc -- you change the reality of communication and thereby you change reality itself. You move from the real world into a different world that is more akin to a video game or a board game than the reality in which you live and move and have your being.
So what is the solution?
Recognize that anything and everything on social media is divorced from the reality I actually inhabit. When I log on, I log on to an algorithmic based reality and not the real world.
Question everything. Not in a nihilistic way, but in a critical realist way. Examine, engage, research, read laterally, seek the wisdom of others. Check everything against the inerrant, infallible word of God.
Recognize the danger of spending too much time in an alternate reality. In other words, limit your time online.
Limit, and I mean severely limit, access to all social media by your kids (including YouTube). Never leave them alone with it.
Create face-to-face community for yourself and your family. Come to church each Sunday and to its events and stay late to talk with people. Have people over to your house. Enjoy time at a restaurant with friends. Go to community events that involve active participation with others. Get to know neighbors and co-workers. Force your kids to play outside. Encourage your kids to play with the neighbor kids.
So much more can be said, but this has already gone on too long as it is. I’ll probably continue on this topic at some point later. Thanks for reading.
Soli Deo Gloria
