Six Months of Being Antisocial
If you’re addicted, you’re addicted, and even if you’re not addicted, companies like Facebook have what we call a network effect block where everybody’s on them cuz everybody else is on them … and there’s no way we could all coordinate to leave at once, so we’re kind of stuck there … So, why the hell am I asking you to do something that very few of you will do? … It might make the difference about whether our species survives or not. That’s why.
— Jarod Lanier,
Set aside an hour or so to watch Jaron Lanier’s talk about the destructive nature of social media. In this talk from his 2018 book tour for Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Lanier enumerates and expounds the negative impacts of social media on individuals and society as a whole. You’ve probably heard a lot of this before. In which case, he reiterates as well, but watch anyway.
In the talk, he argues social media is making everyone anxious, cranky, and mean. It’s also widely known to be addictive—people have even become addicted to being miserable. As an antidote, Lanier recommends deleting your social media accounts. If you can’t bring yourself to do that, he suggests taking a six-month break to clear your head and get to know yourself outside the machine. There has never been a better time not to be on social media, so I’m going to take him up on that challenge. Starting at sundown tomorrow, Friday, January 10th, I’m off social media for six months.
I was planning to delete my Instagram account tomorrow, anyway. And I don’t have accounts on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X, so no problem there. This is already going easier than anticipated. I’ll also include news aggregators and forums like Reddit, Hacker News, etc., as well. I don’t have accounts on any of those sites either, but I have been known to lurk … compulsively. The only social media that I’ll miss is Mastodon. I like Mastodon. I’m not going to delete my account there, I don’t think, but I will go silent for a few months.
- WATCH 10 Reasons to Get Off Social Media - Jaron Lanier “You might have trouble imagining life without your social media accounts, but virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier insists that we’re better off without them. In Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Lanier, who participates in no social media, offers powerful and personal reasons for all of us to leave these dangerous online platforms. Recorded June 19th, 2018.”
Addendum: I decided to delete Mastodon as well. My instance will auto-delete sometime tonight or tomorrow. I’m not sure exactly what time.