"only an illusion of collective action"

June 7, 2024 8:08 AM

[Social media] is terrible at organizing us in the kind of leadership-driven, hierarchical fashion that would be ideal for channelling masses of people into collective, unitary projects. (SLAftermath)

The article is the introductory chapter to the (still on preorder even though it's a few days past its release date) book Log Off: Why Posting and Politics Almost Never Mix by Katherine Cross, which received a mentioned in a recent small press book roundup.

posted by ropeladder (4 comments total)

it demobilizes and scatters the polity; it makes it much harder to come together, deliberate, and effect change in our communities. Worse, social media tricks us into thinking that that’s exactly what we’re doing. What results is a “public square” where real people can get hurt but nothing ever really changes. If social media has power to do good, it lies in its ability to act as a conduit between different domains of the physical world—in other words, how it can help you act in your community. Where it’s failed us most dramatically, however, is that it has become predominantly self-referential, keeping us stuck on platforms obsessing over things that only really matter there—a problem made worse when internet drama is dressed in the stolen valour of genuinely weighty political issues.

This is all extremely right on. I'm curious about Katherine Cross' theory of change - how they imagine change does happen. Surely leadership-driven hierarchy also has a demonstrated history of extreme flaws.
posted by latkes at 8:35 AM on June 7 [4 favorites]

Agreed - Unfortunately, social media has only made us more, not less, tribal.
posted by ichomp at 8:41 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

If social media unified people then it would cease to exist. It would be seen as an existential threat to the mega corporations, banks, i.e. the 1%. Or am I way off topic?
posted by DJZouke at 5:16 AM on June 8 [1 favorite]

Social Media is a blight on our species.
posted by Sphinx at 7:59 AM on June 8 [1 favorite]