Foolishly, back in the day, I thought social media woudl be a liberating tool. A way to open up communication so that everyone (those that can afford a computer and internet, though) gets equal say and can speak their brains to the whole wide world. In truth it's just another hierarchy.
The content creators that succeed the most are either already famous people, celebrities and entertainers with massive herds of unquestioning followers (because groupthink). Or people who have the resources to put out content of quality. For that you need a decent PC, recording gear, software, and internet connection. If you don't have that what was once a charming haven of 'citizen journalism' is just one more example of top down hierarchy where you will be ignored because your material doesn't look or sound professional, which is completely counter to the whole idea of a freely available platform.
This is a mistake. We need to be reaching out to people, such as those whose kids are starving in a modern industrial society. People who have to rely on a young soccer player because the fucking state doesn't care to ensure their kids don't starve. Instead we get preening buffoons representing their bizarre fake lives, parading their ignorance (pewdiepie the fascist's friend, for example), or the whole unpleasant freak show of left vs right. A world populated by young men (ostensibly) that speak in tongues arguing over cancel culture or which video game is more/less sexist, or putting out thousands upon thousands of hours of highly manicured whining about a female character in a piece of science fantasy.
And I'm so thoroughly, utterly, sick of it.
Staring into this abyss is like a funhouse hall of mirrors. A world of twisted perceptions that stare back at you with hatred and judgement. This is not a democratic place of ideas and even handed expression, it's another example of capitalism. To say nothing of the fact these places are all corporate-owned wherein the owners are happy to pander to some of the most toxic interests alive (such as the POTUS) while repressing the expression of left wingers whom they characterise as terrorists (anarchist sites getting taken down by Facebook while it does nothing about actual fascists).
If you are like me and want to engage in actual discussion with like minded comrades, the internet is, perversley and unfortunately, not the place to go. You won't find anything but misery and woe. But if you disconnect what are you left with? Maybe you're lucky and have a real life network you can work with. Those are the best kind, they can really help people, and each other. But if you're isolated, you have to stick with the poison pixel world of toxic influence, one that seems to be winning the so-called 'culture war'. A conflict only the liberal intelligentsia cares about.
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