“Fools find no pleasure in understanding
but delight in airing their own opinions.” – Proverbs 18:2
This is social media in a nutshell. It’s the complete transformation of letting someone’s ego dictate all interaction, as it’s all about your feed, your opinions, arguing with other opinions, formulating other arguments, never coming to understanding.
There’s no win on social media. Likes are garnered by “zingering” the other side, and never giving ground. The more you dig in, the more you’ll encourage people who think like you to follow. Any time you give ground, you appear weak.
And so all argument on social media just comes down to feeding ego. There’s no rational debate, it’s all just playing for an audience, whether it’s getting your friends to like your posts, or goading their side into “looking dumb”. It’s always about posting one’s own opinions, getting the likes, getting the dopamine hits.
Some people get frustrated with me because I rarely actually argue dialectic facts on social media. It’s a waste of time to do so. I just post my rhetorical opinions and go, and usually they’re strong ones. I get it. You want the argument, but it’s never because someone wants to understand, they just want to get into those endless threads where their anger goes forward, they get likes, they hit that block button. However, if anyone wants a real discussion, it can be attained without the grandstanding.
I presume anyone who is fighting on the public wall is just doing so for the bait and grandstand and treat those interactions that way. If someone DMs me, I presume they’re sincere and want a discussion. It’s INVARIABLY right.
The truth is, social media is truly the definition of hell, where ego surpasses all, there is no connection, there is no communion. It’s separation from God. And that’s why with the prevalence of social media, our society is falling apart at the seams.
So what’s the takeaway?
- Don’t reply to people’s posts with “well, actually”.
- Limit your consumption — I’m going to start implementing a “no social media on sundays as that’s the Lord’s day.
- Watch when you’re playing for likes and limit it. This is addictive behavior.
Three steps to improving yourself as a person. That’s all you can do.
Maybe one day we can get back to celebrating culture. I’m trying to do so by producing great books like the Nano Templar series. Get started reading today. It’s changing the landscape of science fiction.
Well, that’s why I quit Twitter.
I don’t use it on weekends. In fact, I’m mostly on it only when (1) I’m trying to promote something or (2) I’m bored and no one else is around.
But not using it on weekends is key. Best of luck with your Sundays Jon.