RE: seeing the person behind the screen
original post by ava
i enjoy reading ava's blog; she gives a great perspective on living under the... stupid logic of tech developers and modern internet culture. she's pretty well-known on bear, so if you haven't read her blog yet, now's the time.
now, i know it sounds ironic to make a reply to an entry about social media's repost culture, but bare with me. what ava says here is that we don't see social media creators as "people", just "content" to project ourselves onto. "OMG he just like me FR!" and all that. and... yeah! that's one of the biggest reasons i, and my friends, and i'm sure ava herself, quit social media: people aren't people anymore, they're just content. and when their content no longer serves your interests, find someone else.
is that not very dehumanizing? social media developers want so badly to put us all in neat little boxes, and never stray from those boxes, lest we get weaker "engagement metrics" or whatever the heck. i'm hesitant to find any reason for businesses, artists, and hobbyists to share their work and interests on instagram, facebook, twitter, or even reddit; who are we even sharing to anymore? careless teens and faceless bots? it sure feels like it!
we are not products. we are not content. we are not brands. we are humans. we would all be wise to remember that.
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man, remember when all we shared on social media were cat videos and crummy poetry? can we go back to that?