Thursday, December 3, 2020

Doom scrolling and distraction

I caught myself yesterday mindlessly scrolling my iphone, reading comments on stories about the end of capitalism. Then a story about the inability of developing countries to remove their dependency on fossil fuels, and the accompanying inevitability of the planet’s ecological destruction. Depressing numbers on climbing COVID-19 cases and a looming possibility of 200K more deaths. Political gridlock. Rampant graft and hypocrisy. On and on. Depressing, in a time when the cold weather has arrived and we’re driven inside, and there’s no escape. Winter is coming and it’s not looking good, folks.

Or is it?

This is all part of a larger issue that I think has been conflated and labelled as “fake news.” I would not call all of the aforementioned problems fake, but the feeling of impending doom these types of stories engender is a symptom of being constantly in the news, and people’s Twitter opinions. In short, of this phenomenon called doom scrolling, 24-7. You get to hate it all, you come to hate new media and tech companies for spawning this new world of inattention and distraction and doom scrolling, and so it all becomes fake news. It doesn’t feel real anymore, and it feels like the only ones who are winning are companies like Facebook who are selling my data in increasingly troubling targeted ads (I was talking to my wife about wine yesterday, and sure enough an ad for a wine subscription service came up in my social media feed. And yes, I have Alexa, and it’s probably listening to everything we say at the counter).

So, what do we do about it? What do I do about it?

I’m coming to loathe Facebook, even though it has SOME tangible value. I like seeing what beers are hitting my local liquor stores (I follow a couple liquor store pages), or when a water main breaks in town (I follow Merrimac news), or when someone posts something sword-and-sorcery related (I follow Pulp Sword-and-Sorcery, and a few other groups). I like seeing when people who I’m friends with, post something genuine. That happens too, albeit infrequently.

I could do without all the rest. Either I start mercilessly cutting shit out, and unfollowing, or I limit the amount of usage, maybe to a couple windows of time each day. And get back to living in the real world of my own life, of my job, my private work, my family, my circle of friends. Reality, and not this consumption of digital 1s and 0s that tells me the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and the only way out is to surf the cutting edge by consuming more information and reading the next snarky comment or the next platitude left by some celebrity I vaguely like.

6 comments:

Paul R. McNamee said...

Social media is hard to walk away from. You suddenly feel like you're missing news (personal, more than "news," I mean.)

It's fine to say you'll stick to real life friends (once this pandemic ends,) but I have a lot of online friends who aren't near me geographically.

I *try* to stay away from politics but this year has gone so crazy, sometimes I vent.

I've definitely seen more "doom" headlines this year though. Can't deny that's just playing into the 2020 shitshow for clicks & money. (like, snakes "flying" (gliding) from trees. They have always been around. Suddenly it gets packaged with murder hornet stories.)

I reluctantly joined Instagram. I didn't want another social media account, but my kids' school teachers post stuff. But, because it's a new platform for me, I've made the choice to run lean. Not following too many people. And I keep 'liking' guitar photos, so most of my unsolicited posts are guitar pr0n. :)


Matthew said...

I'm no Luddite but I think that social media is one of the worse inventions of mankind. I made the decision never to get on in the first place. As my grandfather said about drinking and smoking: if you never start you don't have to quit.

About your situation, you may want to quit or at least limit the time you are on social media. And stay away from anything political.

mudpuddle said...

it's not exactly in your area of interest, but Philip K. Dick's novels deal pretty thoroughly with possible media based futures... i thought so, anyway...

John said...

I have managed to avoid all digital social media so far. I can disable Facebook on my cell phone, but can't delete it. How's that for intrusive?

Ocean Lawyer said...

I killed my FB account long ago. So glad I did. I still have twitter and LinkedIn, but purely professional @JamesKraska (I am a maritime law professor). I don't read anyone's personal blah blah about their dinner/dog/gf/movie they say, etc. Feedly is a good way to read content without getting the stray rounds of opinions.

Brian Murphy said...

Great comments here, thanks all.

I do have to say that "FOMO" (fear of missing out, God I hate that term) is a thing. From a professional standpoint, I do engage with folks about essays I have written, Flame and Crimson, etc., via Facebook. I honestly don't know if I could sever that outlet entirely. I've heard many authors, artists, call social media a necessary evil.

But I waste too much time on this stuff and need to come up with a system of self-regulation.

I do have to say that it's cool a maritime law professor has stopped by this sliver of cyberspace. Hi James!

Mudpuddle, I do branch out into SF from time to time. I have read very little PKD, only "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" due to my love of the film Blade Runner. Bradbury and Harlan Ellison are my favorites there.