This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
"The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing—to reach the mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from—my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back." — C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (via felimath)
The Voynich Manuscript is the world’s
most secretive book. It’s dated to the
15th century and contains an unknown
writing system that even renowned
cryptographers have never deciphered.
Illustrations in the book suggest it may
cover topics like herbal remedies,
biology, astronomy, and the zodiac, but
no one knows for sure what it really is. Source
Some time ago I read an article that illustrated how ideas function similarly to money in a capitalist market. Likewise, in the arena of online activism we often treat the discourses surrounding our oppression how capitalists treat market share, vying to monopolize the discourse with our own lived experiences and intellectual prowess, to solidify our own positions, oftentimes through oppressive tactics. Individuals who can get others to invest in their ideas or lived experiences about a particular discourse obtain greater access to that discourse, wielding greater influence over it as well (the greater the following, the greater the ability to signal boost your own perspectives, or at least perspectives with which you agree). Popular activists can come to dominate online discussions this way.
Herein lies another problem. When conversations are dominated by those who have obtained large followings, the creation and enforcement of hierarchy emerges. This hierarchy revolves around not just competition for followers, but for credibility among those followers. Activists with large online audiences are thought to already have established their credibility — especially among the newly politicized — by showcasing their intellect. All too often, however, this showcasing takes the form of shutting down and/or delegitimizing other users’ ideas and lived experiences. To admit one might potentially be wrong, or even inaccurate, is to lose credibility and access to followers (social currency).
Preventing this loss of currency can become incredibly vindictive. People start treating each other like ruthless transactions, carcasses to step over rather than human beings actively engaged in dialogue or disagreement. After a while it can feel like survival of the fittest. Sometimes it is. Just as billionaires have enormous resources at their disposal to manipulate the flow of power and preserve market dominance, social currency enables popular web-based activists to maintain dominance over online discourses. So while the visibility social media enables can be a valuable tool for the proliferation of alternative media, marginalized voices, and radical re-education, how that visibility is obtained and maintained can be painfully problematic.
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The Virtual Colosseum: Overcoming Social Media’s Dark Side
I’ve been contemplating my dive into social media, the idea of activism and the voice I can create for what I so fundamentally believe in, on twitter, facebook, instagram, etc. I thought that if I create something from scratch and build it, I can effect change. But I’ve witnessed the transition of activism and social power into tweets, posts, and shares. I’ve seen how so ensnared people like me, with such sincere intentions, have become with social media, and which becomes the height of their efforts in the struggle for justice.
This (online)world, though it has many positive implications, and creates a medium for so many silenced peoples, is not the world I wish to be a part of. It does not satisfy my soul. Maybe I’m a romantic, maybe I’m nostalgic for the organic social movements, revolutions, and arts, that arose from community, from the streets. But, tweeting, posting, sharing, and snapping, feels disingenuous; it’s the same rat race with a digital face.
I’ve decided (a while ago) to stop posting videos, to terminate my presence on social media (except tumblr). I want to be known for more than a well-lit video, heavily filtered photo, a curated tweet, or a clever, ironic post.
Once again, I do acknowledge and respect the many ways social media can be beneficial, and crucial. I hope you are getting me on this. Maybe in short, I am saying social media should only be a supplemental tool. One that becomes most necessary in times of survival (such as the Egyptian Revolution). But it should never be something that consumes us.
