Original title: Caveat ironiam

I was actually going to write a social media post about not being on social media. Then I remembered I had a blog.

I’ve unconsciously not been posting much on social media lately. But I have been logging in and browsing, scrolling… and while it has been a sufficient time-waster, I struggle to identify the upside.

Furthermore, my privacy (and yours) is routinely violated via social media company practices and vulnerabilities. Public posts are instant cement, and your private posts can be leaked and exposed. This is to say nothing about the creepy way in which a single idle curiosity will result in countless ads.

I wouldn’t mind buying a car. I have nowhere to put it, and I don’t really want to sink that kind of cash right now, but I did a search for manual transmissions in the current model year. In less than 24 hours, with no mention outside of my own brain that I was passingly curious, I got car sales ads on this platform.

The machine watches you. And advertisers are experts at human manipulation.

This was clumsy and obvious, in part because I’ve heard about this kind of thing before.

But it is no less creepy.

Add to this the fact that social media execs prevent their own children from using social media. These corporations hire the same kinds of human manipulators as the advertisers.

They know what they’re doing.

It’s not good.

In any event, I will likely keep my accounts. I’ll keep the messaging apps. I’ll keep my communication channels open.

But if there are social media posts from me, they will be things that I’ve posted on my blog, explicitly meant for public consumption. I will no longer attempt to fool myself by selecting the privacy options.

These corporations are, in effect, publishers, not platforms. They are only escaping civil and legal scrutiny because the political climate has allowed them to get away with it until now.

That will not last forever. Not even remotely.

Build your own platforms. Create your own communities. Do not leave it to those who are your ideological enemies to control your voice.

They WILL strike you down.

Knowing this, it is imperative upon you to have secured the footing to carry on the fight.