This is a great piece and like others, I feel the same, it's reflecting how I'm feeling. I feel exhausted some days after only spending a few minutes on there
AI can copy data but cannot feel or have pain. Feelings and pain are a rich source of all that makes life beautiful and human. If we don’t have that what are we??
You hit nail on head. Customer told me they are replacing orchestral conductors with ai. He was a professional musician. Downright wrong. Sobering actually. Thanks you for your essay ❤️
Heel mooi en herkenbaar artikel Marloes! Ik moet zeggen dat ik door dit artikel voor het eerst echt blij ben dat het mij nooit gelukt is om een grote following op te bouwen op welk platform dan maar ook. Ik was er te laat mee denk ik. En het frustreerde me altijd. Maar tegelijkertijd demotiveerde het mij dus ook om er al te veel tijd aan te besteden. En door jou verhaal ben ik daar nu blij mee. Al vind ik nog steeds dat ik er veel te veel tijd aan besteed heb, vooral omdat ik er nooit een opdracht uitgehaald heb naar mijn weten. Live contacten zijn inderdaad echt onmisbaar. Zelf spreek ik af en toe af met een groep illustratoren rondom Zwolle. Maar misschien kunnen we ook eens met een ander groepje live afspreken, daar sta ik wel open voor. :) Ik wens je een mooie ontdekkingsreis in je werk! Dat is veel mooier en langer houdbaar dan likes.
"Social media has become a space where nuance is a rare commodity. That world has turned increasingly black and white, and the idea of not having an opinion on something is virtually unheard of. Online, you’re expected to speak out on every issue because 'silence is consent.'"
I love this?! As you wrote in later paragraphs, people tend to judge one's feed while forgetting that's not totally who they are.
"When you’re living in the real world, there’s space to reflect, to choose which global issues to engage with and which to leave to others, and to have genuine conversations. In reality, people who think differently or live differently aren’t necessarily villains in need of cancellation."
And this, too! In the real world, we don't cancel each other if the other person doesn't have an opinion about something or doesn't choose to engage with something people elsewhere are generally engaging with. Because in reality, we're not always in close proximity with someone ; we have our lives to live. In social media, we're in this tight space of each other's feeds and following list. We know immediately if someone doesn't post something and we go after them with metaphorical whips and swords.
Hear, hear, of eh... Read, read! Ik las dit met een vreemde gewaarwording, want het was net alsof ik het allemaal zelf had geschreven. Wat je hier beschrijft... zo voel ik het precies eender. En ook al behoorlijk lang.
Thank you or such a lovely blog post! You put a lot of what I'm thinking into words. I wish I still didn't find leaving social media completely behind so hard. As an illustrator living in a town without other artist friends and colleagues, instagram has been and is the only place I can keep updated on the community of other picturebook artist and publishers in my country. I wonder how it would affect my career to not have any clue what is going on in my industry. And I there is an other way to keep feeling connected and informed that doesn't steal so much of my time and soul as instagram.
After years of effort, our non-profit organization had to make the tough decision to quit our efforts on organic social media. It was just too much of an emotional (and time) drain--the hope to make connections with people who are hurting but with no promise that our posts would reach the majority of our followers.
Facebook was only ever a reluctant concession to where I needed to be - the location that, for some unfathomable reason, everyone decided was a de facto place to be seen online - although I never ventured to the murky waters of Instagram. My feelings on Twitter were warm at first, but the utter mess it has become is simply depressing to behold. Social media, as it was, is already dead, it's simply shambling along - a walking corpse - because nobody has had the heart to put it out of it's misery.
We have desperately needed alternatives to what has been, but each iteration merely repeats the mistakes of prior sites, failing to comprehend what drawbacks have arisen with stale and increasingly hostile, anti-human spaces. There are probably more automated accounts across social media platforms than are actually described as such, and it's painful to watch just how badly messaging on these sites is, in explaining why we have to share place with tools which have no comprehension of the human condition.
How long do we have before we are presented little messages appearing alongside any post, or comment, or other avenue of expression, which analyse the content we are writing in real-time, suggesting changes for better engagement? Are we going to be graded, on a weekly or monthly basis, on how well we are performing algorithmically, like we are unruly schoolchildren? Users will probably be handed time-out's for not getting sufficient comments, likes or shares, if things continue on the path they are headed.
If I wanted to be abused at work, I would have applied for a job in the horrible fast food place down the road...
Sitting in my garden yesterday, I heard a blackbird’s song - the thought came into my head that there was no data collection, ads, nothing between me and that bird singing - pure pleasure.
While a bit less than 20 percent of the world uses English, the majority does not use English. We certainly don't know what's going on in the stuff we can't read but there is a lot happening out there. While we are walking away from old fashioned social medias like instagram, fakebook, and X, things we helped build up, the world is looking in a different direction. New startups are getting lots of use. The Pandora's Box of social media is getting bigger every year.
The free advertising we got from social media was nice while it lasted, but nothing free lasts for ever, especially when it's something everyone needs. For me, the internet held great promise when it first came out. It could have been the world's greatest library for everyone, the best way to communicate over long distances, the leveler of incredibly lopsided playing fields. The day the music died was when I searched for information about Shakespeare's life and instead got the response "How many Shakespeares do you want to buy?"
Each to their own form of communication. I did my community service, I started rock and roll bands, I entertained dancers singing from the stage, I wrote letters to the editor for 50 years to educate the citizenry. I did all these things and I could still do them and social media too. However social media has allowed us to be together without going anywhere and with less effort to communicate. Before I left college I thought about a grad school communications degree. Now I am 75 and thought about retiring, but there's little time left and so much to do. Writing is my way of educating. Growing up in a east coast college town with educators for parents and activists all around I can still find time to do it all and social media has brought us more and more education. Those who believe social media is a shit show have eliminated themselves from fact checking those who would promote shit. That's the big problem! Social Media will increasingly be filled with stuff that is bullshit unless the more educated people who can participate participate! It's not going away and we must communicate face to face, community to community, nation to nation. Let's do it all.
😊thanks for doing the heavy lifting putting this all into words- I have felt much of the same
This is a great piece and like others, I feel the same, it's reflecting how I'm feeling. I feel exhausted some days after only spending a few minutes on there
AI can copy data but cannot feel or have pain. Feelings and pain are a rich source of all that makes life beautiful and human. If we don’t have that what are we??
You hit nail on head. Customer told me they are replacing orchestral conductors with ai. He was a professional musician. Downright wrong. Sobering actually. Thanks you for your essay ❤️
Taking out the humanity out of art is absolutely the wrong turn. That customer will realise that down the line, but then it's too late.
Thank you for putting into words exactly what I’ve been feeling. 💗
Heel mooi en herkenbaar artikel Marloes! Ik moet zeggen dat ik door dit artikel voor het eerst echt blij ben dat het mij nooit gelukt is om een grote following op te bouwen op welk platform dan maar ook. Ik was er te laat mee denk ik. En het frustreerde me altijd. Maar tegelijkertijd demotiveerde het mij dus ook om er al te veel tijd aan te besteden. En door jou verhaal ben ik daar nu blij mee. Al vind ik nog steeds dat ik er veel te veel tijd aan besteed heb, vooral omdat ik er nooit een opdracht uitgehaald heb naar mijn weten. Live contacten zijn inderdaad echt onmisbaar. Zelf spreek ik af en toe af met een groep illustratoren rondom Zwolle. Maar misschien kunnen we ook eens met een ander groepje live afspreken, daar sta ik wel open voor. :) Ik wens je een mooie ontdekkingsreis in je werk! Dat is veel mooier en langer houdbaar dan likes.
"Social media has become a space where nuance is a rare commodity. That world has turned increasingly black and white, and the idea of not having an opinion on something is virtually unheard of. Online, you’re expected to speak out on every issue because 'silence is consent.'"
I love this?! As you wrote in later paragraphs, people tend to judge one's feed while forgetting that's not totally who they are.
"When you’re living in the real world, there’s space to reflect, to choose which global issues to engage with and which to leave to others, and to have genuine conversations. In reality, people who think differently or live differently aren’t necessarily villains in need of cancellation."
And this, too! In the real world, we don't cancel each other if the other person doesn't have an opinion about something or doesn't choose to engage with something people elsewhere are generally engaging with. Because in reality, we're not always in close proximity with someone ; we have our lives to live. In social media, we're in this tight space of each other's feeds and following list. We know immediately if someone doesn't post something and we go after them with metaphorical whips and swords.
Thank you for this essay, Marloes :)
Hear, hear, of eh... Read, read! Ik las dit met een vreemde gewaarwording, want het was net alsof ik het allemaal zelf had geschreven. Wat je hier beschrijft... zo voel ik het precies eender. En ook al behoorlijk lang.
xx
Thank you or such a lovely blog post! You put a lot of what I'm thinking into words. I wish I still didn't find leaving social media completely behind so hard. As an illustrator living in a town without other artist friends and colleagues, instagram has been and is the only place I can keep updated on the community of other picturebook artist and publishers in my country. I wonder how it would affect my career to not have any clue what is going on in my industry. And I there is an other way to keep feeling connected and informed that doesn't steal so much of my time and soul as instagram.
After years of effort, our non-profit organization had to make the tough decision to quit our efforts on organic social media. It was just too much of an emotional (and time) drain--the hope to make connections with people who are hurting but with no promise that our posts would reach the majority of our followers.
Well stated. Just finished reading Haidt’s the anxious generation. Mandatory reading.
Adding that to my to-read-list. Thanks!
Thanks for the recommendation! The title has definitely grabbed my attention.
Facebook was only ever a reluctant concession to where I needed to be - the location that, for some unfathomable reason, everyone decided was a de facto place to be seen online - although I never ventured to the murky waters of Instagram. My feelings on Twitter were warm at first, but the utter mess it has become is simply depressing to behold. Social media, as it was, is already dead, it's simply shambling along - a walking corpse - because nobody has had the heart to put it out of it's misery.
We have desperately needed alternatives to what has been, but each iteration merely repeats the mistakes of prior sites, failing to comprehend what drawbacks have arisen with stale and increasingly hostile, anti-human spaces. There are probably more automated accounts across social media platforms than are actually described as such, and it's painful to watch just how badly messaging on these sites is, in explaining why we have to share place with tools which have no comprehension of the human condition.
How long do we have before we are presented little messages appearing alongside any post, or comment, or other avenue of expression, which analyse the content we are writing in real-time, suggesting changes for better engagement? Are we going to be graded, on a weekly or monthly basis, on how well we are performing algorithmically, like we are unruly schoolchildren? Users will probably be handed time-out's for not getting sufficient comments, likes or shares, if things continue on the path they are headed.
If I wanted to be abused at work, I would have applied for a job in the horrible fast food place down the road...
Sitting in my garden yesterday, I heard a blackbird’s song - the thought came into my head that there was no data collection, ads, nothing between me and that bird singing - pure pleasure.
While a bit less than 20 percent of the world uses English, the majority does not use English. We certainly don't know what's going on in the stuff we can't read but there is a lot happening out there. While we are walking away from old fashioned social medias like instagram, fakebook, and X, things we helped build up, the world is looking in a different direction. New startups are getting lots of use. The Pandora's Box of social media is getting bigger every year.
The free advertising we got from social media was nice while it lasted, but nothing free lasts for ever, especially when it's something everyone needs. For me, the internet held great promise when it first came out. It could have been the world's greatest library for everyone, the best way to communicate over long distances, the leveler of incredibly lopsided playing fields. The day the music died was when I searched for information about Shakespeare's life and instead got the response "How many Shakespeares do you want to buy?"
Each to their own form of communication. I did my community service, I started rock and roll bands, I entertained dancers singing from the stage, I wrote letters to the editor for 50 years to educate the citizenry. I did all these things and I could still do them and social media too. However social media has allowed us to be together without going anywhere and with less effort to communicate. Before I left college I thought about a grad school communications degree. Now I am 75 and thought about retiring, but there's little time left and so much to do. Writing is my way of educating. Growing up in a east coast college town with educators for parents and activists all around I can still find time to do it all and social media has brought us more and more education. Those who believe social media is a shit show have eliminated themselves from fact checking those who would promote shit. That's the big problem! Social Media will increasingly be filled with stuff that is bullshit unless the more educated people who can participate participate! It's not going away and we must communicate face to face, community to community, nation to nation. Let's do it all.
I often think about how society would be if social media never came to fruition.