Social Media, the Creative and 2025...

I did it once in 2015. Can I do it again? And holy smokes, that was 10 years ago. I am referring to a Facebook profile I deleted 10 years ago—actually, I deleted two Facebook profiles—mine and my Mother’s. It was instinctual. I felt like this platform was getting way too toxic, not excluding the fact that I read somewhere how Facebook was a CIA spy on human behavior and also tracking whatever activities I decided to post about my life. The latter of the two could be conspiratorial thinking, but later, it all came out to be true.

Not to date myself, but I have no choice. I started my social ramblings on My Space. Raise your hand if you started there…don’t be shy, I can’t see you. Yep, I loved the My Space format, immensely. I could post a piece of art, play my favorite songs, and genuinely connect with other artists and friends. It was a fun and engaging platform. In 2007, I opened a Twitter account. Only so many words were allowed and it was a quick way to get a bit of information on some news, an update on friend connections, and other such things. There was no “War of the Words”, there was no hate speech or racist backlashing. It was real commentary, as I remember it.

I am an investor and stock market trader. I used to have Twitter in my portfolio. In 2013 or 2014, the actual year escapes me, but Twitter was already in the market. My partner and I who did the whole Real estate thing since 2001, were sitting at the bar having a meet-up in the new Busboy and Poets when I showed her my next investment in Twitter. At the time Twitter was around $14 dollars a share. As I broke it down to her, a gentleman was sitting one barstool over and he was obviously listening. A break in our conversation was him leaning in and excusing himself for eavesdropping.

“So, you really think Twitter is going places?” He asked. He then asked for my number and I gave him my email. We stayed in contact and three years later, he thanked me for sitting in that seat next to him, overhearing the conversation, and told me how he maxed his return on investment.

Today, I no longer have a Twitter account. I saw it coming. I cashed out at the top and the big news came that Elon Musk was going to be buying Twitter, taking it private, and changing the name. It was a game I was not interested in playing. Xtwitter went private and has become the shame of social media. It took almost two years before I signed onto Threads and here we are again.

In the middle of the great 2020 debacle, I was considering opening up another Facebook page, but didn’t actually want to…I needed to so I could start using that platform as a means of business exposure. I had to create a profile in order to create a business profile or create a Facebook group or even do any advertising.

And again, here we are today. Mark Zuckerburg, who owns Facebook, who owns Instagram, who owns Threads; who, in fact, started Threads due to the putrid state of affairs over at X, supposedly built this platform to combat the racism, hate speech, and ugliness, has now conceded to the no-nonsense rhetoric that spoiled Xtwitter. Instead of fact-checking, he is now leveraging what he is calling “community notes”.

Do I even dare mention TikTok? Yes, I was there. I downloaded the app and quickly deleted it. Not because the “Chinese were gathering data” (hell, Facebook was/is doing it), but because I saw how easily it was to get sucked into hours of mindless scrolling! It scared the shit out of me. When I went there, I literally woke up hours later. One dance video after the other and on and on and on. Scroll after scroll after scroll until my brain was burning and my eyes were watering and if I started my scroll at 5 pm, it was 9 pm when I realized how long I was sucked into that virtual media. I shook my brain once, twice, opened my breath, and deleted that app immediately. It is a drug and a potent one.

So, how did we ever get here? From My Space to Facebook, to Twitter, to Instagram, to Snapchat, to What’s App, to X, to TikTok, to Threads, and now… Bluesky? Let’s not forget YouTube has now become an even more streamlined alternative media hub, tracking what you watch and feeding you more through its algorithm. Are we being brainwashed, controlled, dumbed down, or just complacent to whatever feeds the goose, feeds the gander? Are we now the Automatons and the AI robots the new humans? I shutter…to think…