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FROM A TO Z BY JOHN ZERZAN
(Anti-) Social Media
WE NEED CIVILIZATION TO COLLAPSE
I
t is a madly accelerating techno-
world, one of endless interrup-
tion. So-called social media
have clearly made social exis-
tence worse.
Popular books and articles
treat online immersion as a
threat or an affl iction. Outsmart Your
Smartphone, by Tchiki Davis (2018);
Overcoming Internet Addiction for
Dummies, by David Greenfi eld (2020);
“I Gave up my Phone for 30 Days to
Tackle My Screen Addiction — and
it Changed My Life,” by anon. (2012),
for example.
It's instructive that the designers
and purveyors of social media are
very likely to keep their own kids away
from it. Apt to send them to Waldorf
schools, where electronics are banned!
“Detox” programs and camps
proliferate, especially in summer.
The negative and addictive effects
of social media could hardly be more
widely known, as per countless stud-
ies and reports.
In the rushed technosphere, do
folks daydream anymore? Some
of us still write letters, but they've
been pretty much replaced by tweets,
“likes,” and the rest of fast-food-type
“communication.” Even though we
know that outside social media, people
have more time and enjoy better
mental/emotional health.
"The Machine Stops" is an E.M.
Forster story written in 1909. Forster
envisioned people averse to human
interaction and living in separate
underground pods. They communi-
cate electronically, controlled by a
network called the Machine — until it
begins to fall apart.
Jaron Lanier, who, ironically,
brought us virtual reality, fi nds hope
in the storied collapse of the Machine
as he tries to imagine a reformed model
for social media. This could somehow
be realized via a big changeover, called
for in his 2018 book, Ten Arguments for
Deleting Your Social Media Accounts
Right Now. Social media needs a make-
over because, after all, “We can't aff ord
to ditch it,” he asserts. We can't aff ord
not to try to fi x it, "because otherwise
we'll eventually have to gut a whole
universe of digital technology."
A whole universe that is carrying us
further and further into the isolated,
unhealthy, deskilled, surveilled, alien-
ated dimensions of technology. Lanier is
desperate to salvage this universe, but
my hope is that it will collapse like the
Machine in Forster’s story. It is really
up to us to decide what needs to go.
Always wired, ever more so? Or… ?
John Zerzan is a local anarchist writer whose
books include Elements of Refusal and
Future Primitive. You can listen live to his
“AnarchyRadio” at 7 pm Tuesdays on KWVA
88.1 FM or via audio streaming.
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