Fear and Suspicion in the Age of Social Media (AKA How Social Media Killed My Dad)

Here's a quick one that I've been thinking about.

I have not used big social media for years, and my family had been the same for a while, but in the past year, I've seen noticeable change. My dad started using Twitter, and he's fallen down a terrible hole, it's hard to even connect with him anymore without hearing some uncreative racism, explanations of why I should use AI for literally everything, something about how evil autistic people and "liberals" are, or something about how I'm inadvertently a disappointment. I look(ed?) up to him, so it weighs on me. Now I've tried talking to him about it. Nicely. but he got really defensive and talked about free speech and how I'm part of the "woke cult". (for reference, the only "woke" things about me is the fact that I'm queer and am not very fond of incessant racism. I'm not involved in politics, I just want to live.)

It's no secret that it's easy to fall into "doomscrolling" where we are hooked in by an intense emotion, usually a negative one like fear or hatred, and scroll endlessly. I've witnessed my father become more scared and angry over the past few years. He used to be smart and interesting to talk to, we used to share interests like shooting and hiking, but now I don't even feel inclined to do those things with him because somehow something always comes up and he goes on some kind of rant for half the ride home. He doesn't seem to even care about other people's input or emotions anymore. I remember distinctly a day he asked me how my day at work was, and I said bad, because it was a long day. He said "Good? Good." and moved on, almost like he didn't care to listen at all.

Now whenever there's an idle moment, he's on his phone, and I feel sick, because I know he's just digging his grave deeper.

Oh yeah, and he jumpscared me by saying 'we live in a society' today. Unironically. Each day something new, as they say... 

This seems to be a bigger problem in society, not the racism per-say, but the mounting paranoia of your fellow man. You see it with parents who constantly monitor their kids, people keeping to themselves at the park and on the street, intensifying of political factions due to fear of what "the other guy" is going to do if he wins (left vs right, at least here in the U.S.), and the rise in social anxiety (not attributed fully to social media, but I believe it has a large part in it.) Luckily, people are starting to see the harmful effects of social media, and some are starting to try and do something about it (like a lot of you on here!) but for all those people, there are those who are unable to, or don't want to quit, and suffer the adverse mental effects.

It'll be a long time before everyone realizes what they're doing to their minds, but I hope we hit a reset one of these days... We probably won't, but I can hope.

What are your thoughts about this? Does anyone have a similar experience?

"I swear I'll write about different stuff once I'm back at school. Prommy."

O.D.