Social Media is Mirroring Itself Out
You are not listening to me; you are listening to yourself. - U.G. Krishnamurti
It appears social media is over, at least where its original purpose is concerned. The functions and UI are still there. The actual websites, users, and 'interactions' are still there. But the actual interactions have been reduced to what I can only perceive as a strange mixture of cruelty, paranoia, and low-level insanity.
There are now two increasingly common responses to any and all posts on social media: Non-sequiturs and ad hominem.
Firstly, the non-sequiturs. That is, replies or comments that simply do not follow from the original post. This isn't to try to argue that every response should be absolutely related to the original point, but that in terms of communication and, well, anything remotely 'social', responses need to be at least tangentially related to the topic or post at hand. These current responses have zero relation to the topic, not even abstractly. Often they are so far removed from the original point that one wonders if the replier in question is a bot, unwell, or (and I'll get to this) having their own conversation.
Secondly, ad hominem. That is, whereby someone attacks the traits or life of the person making a point instead of answering the point itself. One might say that classically, for instance, if one were debating a Christian on some-or-other theological topic and the debater called them out for being prideful or rude, we would consider this ad hominem, as it would be unrelated to the truth of the theological matter. I call this 'classical' ad hominem, as the more recent kind is rarely even related to that person's traits as per the conversation, but quite literally just a cruel attack for the sake of likes, clout, and attention.
Both of these, in combination, bring me to a broader point with regard to the end(ing) of social media. Such sites rely on the premise that those involved are 'being social', that is, communicating with each other. This appears to have stopped happening altogether, and each social media account has become an island unto itself, simply using other accounts as a means to bolster its supposedly correct worldview.
It needn't matter if the post is about apples and oranges; the user whose reality tunnel is lined with pineapple is only ever going to be able to comment, 'What does this have to do with pineapple?' or 'If you don't like pineapple, burn in hell!' or some such. No one is engaging with anything; they are merely consulting whichever posts happen to bolster or confirm their worldview and telling the rest to fuck off.
The non-sequitur and ad hominem are the same move in different closing. The former skips (via false engagement) the post at hand, prioritizing a conversation already running, whereas the latter pretends to be about you as a means to reach the same verdict.
A whole civilisation of people standing in front of mirrors, shouting at their own reflections, and calling it a public square. This form of solipsism is nothing new; we've just happened to build an entire architecture that rewards it, monetises it, and calls the result "engagement."
Social media, it seems, at least, promised a place where people talk with each other. In time, what was built instead is a machine efficient enough to let millions of people talk at themselves simultaneously, in public, while believing the crowd around them constitutes company.
A stadium full of people, each wearing headphones playing their own voice back to them, mistaking the noise of the crowd for conversation.
In time, I suppose, this infinite, reflective echo will heighten the anger, paranoia, and cruelty to greater and greater levels, until, like a bored sadist demigod, we just get bored and move on, leaving behind crummy excuses, as per usual.