It annoys me how people talk about using social media like it's a vice. And a female-coded one at that.

"Spend less time on social media" is trotted out a virtuous in the same way that "not eating a pint of ice cream" is.

Imagine if in the early days of movable type, there were people going around saying "don't read pamphlets, they are full of misinformation"

Social media is the primary way news is disseminated. It is superseding newspapers and TV as the primary vector of mass media. 1/

We had a really good speaker at our school last year who talked about understanding conflict resolution. Part of an effort to improve student mental health. The only thing I didn't like about her presentation was what she said on social media "Social media? my advice is stay away!" *big audience chuckle from teachers and parents*

And that laugh is because most know we won't *really* stay away. And we admire those who don't use social media like they are training for a marathon. 2/

Is "stay away" realistic advice for young people? Or for ANY people? It drives me nuts that some of the people with the best judgement, the cooler heads, the deeper thinkers, think that just ignoring social media is a solution.

Any format of information sharing can be "bad" yellow journalism, propaganda TV networks. All media present an opportunity to control the public will and so all media can be put to dishonest uses.

3/

If I thought that "Social Media" meant using X or Facebook... I might agree with "stay away" But, that isn't the whole universe (we know that here, but who else knows?) and these are the kind of people who should know!

In the future social media will be media. The end.

What will that be like? We are building it now. Please for the love of God we need smart people to participate in this project. 4/4