This was originally part of my post about Starfleet Academy, but I didn’t want it’s negativity impacting my summary SFA.
What Social Media has become is a sorry state. I haven’t deleted Facebook, as it still fulfils the occasional use of information for friends or LARPs etc. But it’s such a slog through AI, irrelevant content, adverts and random negativity.
I stepped away from social media regarding geopolitical news eighteen months ago because it was doing a number on my mental health. I feel I have to stay somewhat informed when bad stuff is happening in the world but we aren’t built to process our own Ludovico Technique1 of a 24 hour stream of every negative thing in the world. There aren’t many thing left to keep me on Facebook. Posts from friends are much less common and not always visible when made. Being in any fan groups feels redundant when whatever you’re into, you’re wrong about it. If you’re in a page about metal music, you’re a moron for liking the wrong type. If you enjoyed Start Wars: The Acolyte, you’re a moron who deserves to be sad it was cancelled. There is no room for joy on social media, so I’m out.
Starfleet Academy is indirectly one of the reasons I started posting in this blog again this year. It’s a great new series of Star Trek. Just as fallible and goofy and prone to bad writing as any of them are. But the fan community on Facebook, reddit et al can’t just say something isn’t for them and leave it at them. They have to mock anyone who enjoys it, hold it to the great standards of series of the past (that series of the past did not actually meet either) and rejoice in it’s failing viewing figures, and I imagine in it’s cancellation, should it come.
I have been guilty of similar thoughts in the past. There are endless reality TV shows I consider a spectacular waste of money, but I haven’t found the need to join fan groups and root for their demise. It seems like a strange waste of time.
I like my blog. Here I do joy in the things that make me or those around me happy. It’s a shame it’s a walled garden, I miss the little dopamine hit of having a friend reply or like a post. If I could add a members section without all of the complexity of Wordpress etc, I would, but even that still ends up spammed by bots. I will just have to accept old fashioned affirmation when people who know me say they read something here they enjoyed!
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Conversely, Ludovico Technique the band should be enjoyed regularly. ↩︎