Social Media Circlejerks

Social media is a funny thing. The name implies that it is supposed to be "social," a term that means, according to an online dictionary:

1. pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club.

2. seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious.

3. of, pertaining to, connected with, or suited to polite or fashionable society: a social event.

4. living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation: People are social beings.

It would seem the term "social" implies interaction with others; a connection to people. "Media" means:

( usually used with a plural verb  ) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely: The media are covering the speech tonight.

Together this would imply social media is a way for people to communicate with people.

Indeed, the ever-educational Wikipedia sums up "Social Media" as:
...the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, exchange and comment contents among themselves in virtual communities and networks.

The problem seems to come when people get involved. By definition, this means social media is going to have problems. I'm still not entirely sure whether people cause the problems or are the problems.

I used one of the most popular social media sites all the time. Perhaps you've heard of it. "FaceBook."

It was interesting; you could "reconnect" with people from school. You could see both of the people who broke from their high school stereotypes and the people who had married and find time to post pictures of their kids.

People would sometimes post things that were relevant to their lives; observations about their day, and links to news stories they thought were interesting or funny.

In fact, much of my news feed became little more than an aggregator of witty pictures.

Yes. An actual capture of my FaceBook timeline.

So. Many. Pictures.

But the dragon really reared its head when events of note were making the rounds in the media. Mass shootings meant anyone with an opinion about gun control had to broadcast his or her wisdom. Presidential election inevitably led to virtual penis-measuring to show whose candidate was the bigger antichrist campaigning to destroy America; if you go back and look at postings about the elections, you rarely saw anything extolling the virtues of a candidate so much as the reason the other guy was Satan in disguise.

Okay. So people like to cling to ideas that were sometimes a little left of even keel. But sometimes, once in awhile, dear Auntie May would post something that was just too ludicrous to believe it wasn't a joke.

This, my friend...this is the true hazard of online social media.

I've had several occasions now where I would see something of such questionable reasoning that my brain would twitch. The gray matter completely lacking any form of muscle would actually momentarily seize up, causing my stream of thought to shiver out of alignment.

I would then make the mistake of commenting on what must be a cognitive error on the part of the original poster. Surely a link to actual facts, or pointing out their fallacious reasoning, will lead them to thank me for keeping them from continuing to look like a moron in front of the Internet audience.

I'd be wrong.

I've been told I'm a self-righteous know-it-all because I asked a question. I've been told, "I'm not going to debate religion with you!" when what I said had nothing to do with religion (which left me scratching my head for a few moments...) I've had people go off in insane, irrelevant justification for their statement that actually had nothing to do with their statement.

But usually I'd see <unfriended>

This is when I began to understand something fundamental to people's psyches on the Internet.

I have this annoying habit of trying to relate to people using my own Aspergian traits. I tended to focus on information; sifting through the wrong lines of thought in order to pull out the right. I value finding "right" and eliminating poor reasoning using facts.

Other people apparently don't do this.

 More to the point, they don't want to find reason. They're not interested in other perspectives; many people prefer to wallow in ignorance. Of course they don't see it this way, but it's the consequence of what they really use social media for; a circlejerk.

 If you aren't agreeing with the other person's idea, the tendency I've found is to simply shut you down. No discussion. No rationale. Just block you. Because you had the nerve not to share in their idea.

I'm not entirely sure why this is; I do know that the repercussions can be sad. These people whittle away anyone who challenges them to think or justify their ideas, leaving them with only a bubble of like-minded bobbleheads to validate their ideas. Fortunately in social media circles this usually results in you just becoming a bigger jerk who has a firm grasp on what you believe is true; in some positions, surrounding yourself with yes-men who don't question your ideas can have actual negative consequences.

Perhaps this is simply a side effect of the kind of people I've friended on FaceBook at some point. Maybe there are plenty of people who are simply quiet, and I've managed to notice, or focus on, the people who are particularly loud and repetitive in stating irrational crap. I'm not entirely sure.

In the end, perhaps this is just another part of human interaction that I have trouble understanding. people tend not to seek truth, but rather come to a conclusion and find others to validate that position. They "win" by silencing those who question the conclusion.

Me, I don't block people out. There are people that spout off and make me bristle; other times I just get depressed to see fallacies and outright misinformation being spread. But rather than take offense, I use it to remind me of what the general masses of people are often like.

Depressing.

Pointing out fallacies in reasoning will most likely accomplish little.

So I don't say much of anything.

Now most of my "unfriends" come from people who get offended just by me expressing my own ideas (note: this seems most effective when using phrases like "magic sky wizard") rather than pointing out to someone why using a bit of reasoning they are wrong or misinformed.

Heck, I don't even bother reading most posts now. I just spout off whatever mental diarrhea is sloshing in my head at the time and wait for the next nugget of wisdom is ready to benefit my legion of followers. I've come to accept that they're often wrong, but won't listen to anything that suggests they might be wrong in the slightest.

Hmm...is it still social media when you ignore what others have to say, while simultaneously expecting everyone to read what you think is important? Is there such a thing as narcissist media? Or is that what social media really is?

I suppose "social media" has a better ring to it than "validate meeeee-dia."