Social
media is a new kind of fiction.
Those of you who know me know that I don’t normally
like to post anything serious on social media, but lately I’ve been feeling a
great disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in
annoyance and were suddenly…amplified.
I know some people who are perfectly delightful when
I see them out and about in the world. Strangely, when I encounter them on
social media, they often seem strident, angry and nastily opinionated. Not that
they don’t have strong opinions when I’m physically with them, they just seem
to be more dimensional and rounded beings out in the midst of reality. That
roundedness makes them easier and more enjoyable to be around. And based on
experience, I think it is closer to who they really are than what I see on the Internet.
I know other people who in the real world have difficulties and issues they’re
facing, but on social media, they seem to lead lives of perfection, bliss and
triumph. They look as if they’ve got it all together and are just pausing for a
second to post a photo of an awesome brunch that they are going to enjoy
without worrying about calories or cleaning up after. Neither group much
resembles the versions of them I think of as real. Many people I know actually
seem to be amplified in both directions at the same time when I read their
tweets, view their Instagram pictures or see their Facebook posts.
And so I have come to the conclusion that social
media is a new (and currently insidious) kind of fiction. Think hard about the
people you know in real life, and compare them to the versions of them you see
on the Internet. Do they seem the same to you? Or are they a bit like
caricatures of the people you know or maybe commercials for themselves?
I have no objection to fiction—as a writer, I relish
fiction—and I would normally be very excited at the discovery of a new form of
it, but I am currently concerned. You see, the insidious bit that I mentioned
earlier is that a lot of people appear to be viewing social media as a new kind
of reality. I first encountered this
“new reality” idea while doing branding work. We’d receive brand research, and
it would refer to social-media marketing as “reality-based” or call it the “new
reality.” Many brands are using social media as a way to gather information and
insights about their audiences—just the way many businesses are gathering “big
data” about who people are by tracking their use of the Internet and their
interactions on social media. And they are using this information to shape how
they think about people and interact with them…on social media. Seems a bit
like weighing something with your thumb on the scale.
However, it’s not just brands and businesses
interpreting social media as reality. More and more people are getting more and
more of their news and information from social media. More and more people are
interacting with their friends and acquaintances more and more often through
the filter of social media. More and more people have friends and acquaintances
they have only ever interacted with
on social media. And the view social media provides is different from the
reality of people that I know, the society I think I’m a part of and the world
I feel I live in. Everything is a bit amplified, exaggerated, cartoonish—less
real. This fictional landscape is a minefield of conspiracy theories, vicious
personal attacks, middle school–style “unfriendings,” self-doubt-generating
success stories and aspirationally beautiful but taken-out-of-context moments
that make life seem like a library of genre fiction thrown into a blender with
a few dodgy news reports.
I think this may be dangerous. I think that if we
remain unaware or simply don’t acknowledge that social media is a new kind of
fiction, we risk growing increasingly disconnected from reality and may drift
dangerously toward living in weird little pockets of fantasy, many of which
seem to violently repel each other and push us farther away from each other and
from reality. I like social media. It is fun. It is a great way to keep in
touch with people who are physically too far away to stay in close personal
contact with otherwise. It’s an interesting place to find rumors and occasional
facts about what’s going on in the parts of the world that aren’t right outside
one’s window. It’s a great place to find a moment (often way too many moments
that turn into hours) of amusing distraction and playful creativity. It’s a
great place to share and tell stories. But it isn’t reality. It’s a new kind of
fiction, and it’s always dangerous to mistake fiction for reality.
Of course, I could be wrong. What are your thoughts?
