Social Media and how we Value education

TL;DR: (for chumps who cant read) short form content is meant to be distracting as opposed to educational for a reason, and social media companies want to limit the publics exposure to education to remain in power. read more books and better urself.

If you couldn't tell already I'm a very leftist idealist. politics aside, my hopes and aspirations are to build a future where everyone has their basic needs, as well as their social & spiritual needs met and accepted in society.

Now, with this in mind, I'd like to look at this place (spacehey) and ask you my dearest reader what makes you choose this site? (you can answer this in the comments if you'd like or don't. I'm not your mother.) whether you're just a kid drawn in by tiktok and the allure of "aesthetics" or you're an old fart millennial looking for nostalgia, or in my case where I'm looking for more out of social media, we all have one thing in common and thats wanting a change of pace from instagram or tiktok or god forbid twitter.

but what about Spacehey makes it special? is it just a nostalgia blast for coders? or can it be used as a glimmer of hope for how we treat social media and the internet as a whole?

I think the first thing to account for is how the internets changed.

now, I wont pretend like I was online prior to 2014 so I don't have much to speak about on early web culture, However as I understand it, communities of people carved out spaces like holes in dirt where other lurkers who liked the same anime and music could congregate, and for the most part drama, discussions, arguments, would all remain in the community unless fandoms interacted outside of forum boards in a more "public" space. usually youtube.

this is why fandoms come up so often in internet culture, news, and drama. they were the very pillars of early internet societies.

but in todays internet society, we've built great empires and have bred a monoculture that attracts different people (usually by generation) and we find our platforms ran by corporations instead of community funding that contributes to furthering user experiences and community engagement.

Facebook has cornered the market on Boomers-Gen X and also has much overlap with millennials

Instagram (also owned by facebook) has probably the most congregation of millennials and a huge overlap with older Gen Z

tiktok has the youngest audience, mostly Gen Z with the oldest of gen alpha who can use it, using it.

anyone younger than 13 is addicted to ugh... Youtube shorts. Truly we live in the bleakest of times.

but what of this? why bring this up? well I just wanted to show you how limited our options are despite these platforms being endless sources of content

1. Facebook 2.ByteDance (TikToks parent company) and 3. Google.

thats literally just 3 companies who own the MAJORITY of social congregation on the web. how is that not scary? I mean what do the CEO's think? are they in line with my beliefs or the publics beliefs? do they even care?

so many questions...

But what does this have to do with education? well as im sure anyone with a brain who's been alive for longer than 15 years can tell you: the internet is EVERYWHERE and it affects so much more than it did even 5 years ago.

Job interview? they ask you about your social medias

are you a student? your social media activity can get you suspended or expelled or cost you your tuition

are you a Hobbyist? Social media is probably the only place you can find others to connect your interests with.

but what we don't often understand is that by involving social media in our aspirations and goals and leisure, we've unconsciously given consent for these corporations to have personal effects on our every day lives and how we perceive things like our jobs, hobbies, and even friends.

Have you ever compared your life to a friends on social media? then you're a victim of the kind of propaganda these corporations push, and this methodology can be applied to so much.

now if you've made it to this point, first off congrats. I know I cant sit through my own ramblings, but more importantly: you may ask yourself, "well how is it the corporations fault that people have been brought so much misery from social media?" for the sake of keeping things short, its because your continued misery and cycles of attachment with social media makes them Money.

lets use the examples from earlier.

your job may use your social media against you, by giving a job your social media you unconsciously police your self, "what if my boss see's this?" "what if I post at work and someone notices?" then you start "working harder" which is essentially going beyond the means of what your paid, which makes the company more money and leaves you burnt out. on AND off the clock. and it may seem small but if hundreds of thousands of people do this then all sorts of companies all over the country make more than what they spend. 

the folks "in charge" of passing the legal bills that allow this know this and because they know its good for the economy they allow this.

Are you Hobbyist? Not anymore. the first influencer/artist you see online tells you about how you can make money with your passion. isn't that promise great and fulfilling? that you can live off of the thing you love? well wheres that same energy when your art isnt selling and you have to burn yourself out to provide for yourself, now suddenly you dont like that hobby anymore and its WORK not passion. Economists will tell you that its your fault. that you just need to pull yourself up from the bootstraps and it will work. maybe if you pull hard enough you'll fly, and all through this cycle are influencers selling you caffiene so you can keep going, printers so you can make more product, and you essentially become another fool in the economy.

are you a student? maybe you're passionate about becoming a scientist. social media shows you that you wont make much at that job. so then you try connecting with friends and see them going out and having fun. suddenly you're self conscious about your social life. forget your studies, go drink and smoke and party and post about it on YOUR social media. or alternatively you want to be invested in your studies so you can secure a job. influencers will sell you courses to be better at learning, or buy something for your dorm, or instill doubt in your peers, all to make you ultimately a better part of the economy.

in todays age it feels like a lose-lose for us and a win-win for those who dictate the rules of OUR content of OUR careers of OUR LIVES. and for anyone with eyes to see it. it is.

but what do we do about this? how can we change it so that its better for all of us?

well the first thing to consider is education. its no surprise every platform has a short-form video content feature and thats because they want you to be distracted from understanding that we're all frogs in boiling water.

they take as much of our attention as possible so that the only thing we pay attention to is THEIR media or WORK.

but when you start critically thinking, it brings back so much agency into your life.

Many people including myself, have a negative relationship with reading or writing. this too is intentional. your teacher yelling at you, bad grades, frustration, the anxiety of timed assignments. they want education to be as hard as possible for your brain because they want you to do whats easy, that being a tiktok summary of a novel you were assigned for your 11th grade english essay. so on and so forth. 

its important that YOU the individual make an effort to reconnect with literature, because anything worth knowing about can not be summed up and properly digested and understood by your brain in 30 seconds or even 10 minutes.

most people remember the last book they read, album they listened to, art they drew, paper they wrote but how much do you remember about the tiktoks or yt videos you've watched in the past WEEK? hell how about even today?

anyways I just want anyone who's made it this far to have a better awareness and to think more critically about their relationship to the internet and how it relates to a bigger picture.

going back to this site just to wrap things up. (you could honestly stop reading now if you haven't already)

I think Spacehey is an outlier in all of this. its a space carved by people with a passion to bring a new perspective to online communities and social media, and if enough people knew where to look I think this site could have a lot of potential in giving a voice to those who never even knew what they were missing.

on the other hand though I feel like the bar of entry is a bit too old school. retro isn't bad but its painfully outdated. I dont think enough people will care about the site if they keep the self coding thing and dont update the user interface.

so heres a quick list of things I like and things I wanna see changed.

Likes:

1. customization
2. forums
3. bulletins
4. groups

Things I dislike:

1. that I have to learn coding to have a cool page
2. there isn't enough buttons to direct me through pages. I hate having to use my browsers back and forward page buttons.
3. there aren't live chat rooms (I feel like that could be a big plus)

I think this site would flourish if it became more centered around blogs and individual journalism (Like how im using it) I would love to hear more about peoples day to day experience ramblings, or dream journals, poetry etc. essentially fulfill all the things tumblr doesn't.

okay anyways thanks for listening to an insomniac girls insane ramblings about the economy I love you for reading and I hope you're doing well. see you in the next post. -Zona