This deeply important post, insight, and truth telling reverberates a harsh chord within me on a mess o levels. On a personal note I will abscond with a phrase from teen world "Compare and despair". Oh boy do I. Widowed, isolated, no fam, and at times circling the emotional bowl I see happy couples, fans, cool trips, and videos that I'm clueless how to make. It feels(is) harmful to me. Yet I know at the heart of humanity is connection to others. So ergo: I share, hit likes, comment and try and be a good SM pal. I blunt, to a point, riding the struggle bus for days by being a good pal to my squad.
And there is this. I'm a volunteer crisis counselor. In my work I've texted with many many hundred of teens who are in abject pain with eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, and more. The work we do to bring some degree of calm and comfort and support to these CHILDREN is hard, emotionally crushing, and saps your very soul. I'm able to get them to some calm, some hope, some feeling better. Yet it's only extinguishing a sofa on fire. Their emotional house is engulfed in scorching flames of hurt which will take years to stop.
Craven FB Instagram needs to pay companies doing crisis work and companies treating teens for mental health issues. Further they need to give every jr. high and high school an annual payment for guidance counselors. If you haven't guess I am pissed. I see and hear the pain and self destruction SM does to teens. We all should be angry. Sorry to rant. This post is so important.
Reading this, and then Mark's comment, has me thinking a whole array of things.
First, I'm glad I stopped using both FB and Insta - since they're owned by the same company, who I hate/loathe/despise for what they've done to humanity, globally, in the name of "engagement" [spoiler: ad $$], with zero thought given to the human lives impacted negatively, and even ended, through actions taken IRL that were spurred by virtual actions/content on Facebook.
However, being a human, I miss connection with my other humans that Signal, email, and Twitter can't really fill in during a pandemic, when we're all justifiably hiding out in our own caves. Which I still am, TYVM #MetsParty, although I did travel to a conference in Boston last week. TYVM vaccines, masks, Delta Airlines' vax/mask mandates, and whoever makes hand sanitizer. So I saw people, but I still miss that feeling of connection across the miles that only happens on platforms like .... FB and Insta.
The internet wasn't created to become a giant ad platform that makes big bank by setting us in opposition to each other, but that's what's happened. Dunno if it's late-stage (terminal?) capitalism, just plain human nature, a combination of the two, or the front end of a tech-driven extinction event. Hard to find the upside to much of what passes for "modern life," beyond the ability to converse and work with other humans across the globe, which I do on the daily, and for which I am grateful.
All of which is to say "amen" and "amen to what Mark said." And that I'm part of a group of people actively fighting to hold FB accountable for their insouciant greed. They really don't GAF about people, other than (maybe) their shareholders.
This deeply important post, insight, and truth telling reverberates a harsh chord within me on a mess o levels. On a personal note I will abscond with a phrase from teen world "Compare and despair". Oh boy do I. Widowed, isolated, no fam, and at times circling the emotional bowl I see happy couples, fans, cool trips, and videos that I'm clueless how to make. It feels(is) harmful to me. Yet I know at the heart of humanity is connection to others. So ergo: I share, hit likes, comment and try and be a good SM pal. I blunt, to a point, riding the struggle bus for days by being a good pal to my squad.
And there is this. I'm a volunteer crisis counselor. In my work I've texted with many many hundred of teens who are in abject pain with eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, and more. The work we do to bring some degree of calm and comfort and support to these CHILDREN is hard, emotionally crushing, and saps your very soul. I'm able to get them to some calm, some hope, some feeling better. Yet it's only extinguishing a sofa on fire. Their emotional house is engulfed in scorching flames of hurt which will take years to stop.
Craven FB Instagram needs to pay companies doing crisis work and companies treating teens for mental health issues. Further they need to give every jr. high and high school an annual payment for guidance counselors. If you haven't guess I am pissed. I see and hear the pain and self destruction SM does to teens. We all should be angry. Sorry to rant. This post is so important.
Reading this, and then Mark's comment, has me thinking a whole array of things.
First, I'm glad I stopped using both FB and Insta - since they're owned by the same company, who I hate/loathe/despise for what they've done to humanity, globally, in the name of "engagement" [spoiler: ad $$], with zero thought given to the human lives impacted negatively, and even ended, through actions taken IRL that were spurred by virtual actions/content on Facebook.
However, being a human, I miss connection with my other humans that Signal, email, and Twitter can't really fill in during a pandemic, when we're all justifiably hiding out in our own caves. Which I still am, TYVM #MetsParty, although I did travel to a conference in Boston last week. TYVM vaccines, masks, Delta Airlines' vax/mask mandates, and whoever makes hand sanitizer. So I saw people, but I still miss that feeling of connection across the miles that only happens on platforms like .... FB and Insta.
The internet wasn't created to become a giant ad platform that makes big bank by setting us in opposition to each other, but that's what's happened. Dunno if it's late-stage (terminal?) capitalism, just plain human nature, a combination of the two, or the front end of a tech-driven extinction event. Hard to find the upside to much of what passes for "modern life," beyond the ability to converse and work with other humans across the globe, which I do on the daily, and for which I am grateful.
All of which is to say "amen" and "amen to what Mark said." And that I'm part of a group of people actively fighting to hold FB accountable for their insouciant greed. They really don't GAF about people, other than (maybe) their shareholders.