Very small turnout at Twitter's funeral.
Very small turnout at Twitter's funeral.
Will you miss Twitter? Should social media collapse under its own weight of similar hubris, here's an idea: try podcasts.
Hard to miss the toxic fallout from what we once called (rather foolishly) ‘social’ media.
Social? Let’s just admit it now: social, it ain’t.
“Though it’s always been a sewage system for political sludge, Twitter has…” was a fabulous opening line about the Musk network, penned by a writer, Charlie Warzel, who writes for The Atlantic. A sewage system to me, broadly describes much of social media. I can’t disguise my disgust with a phenomenon for which I once was a cheerleader. Especially in webinars I conducted in 2010. About 60 attendees, some of whom are seen here below at the USIS in Colombo, have since then gone on to spearhead amazing projects in their field. I know their experience is very different from mine, but even they witnessed the tragic outcome of hate speech, particularly on Facebook.
Students who graduated from Passport To Digital Citizenship’ in 2010
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I WAS SO OPTIMISTIC THEN. So optimistic that a few years later in my book Chat Republic, I welcomed the windfall of our hyper connectedness. With a few caveats, of course. Today Twitter, like Facebook has become yet another node in the infinite hate machine. If I was to write a sequel, it could be called Antisocial Media, or Republic of Hate. But no one needs to tell you what you already sense. There’s no dearth of evidence:
Dr. Sanjana Hattatowa’s 204-page report on Facebook hate speech in Sri Lanka.
That Instagram is over.
‘Truth decay’ is for real, blurring the line between opinion and fact - a Rand Corporation report.
That by ‘Liking Hate,’ social media empowers offline violence.
How social media use is directly correlated to mental health issues
How reducing smartphones use could be helpful.
WITH THAT LONG PREAMBLE, allow me to turn more optimistic and state that the best way to get more thoughtful information today is now a podcast.
(Full disclosure: Yes, I’m biased, now that I’m podcasting.)
Podcasts have to compete in a world of infotainment, so podcasters realize that they need two ingredients for sustenance. Honesty, and insight. Here are just three examples why podcasts today give TV and print —even radio sometimes - a gleeful whupping.*
You want the inside scoop of what the chief security officer at Twitter did when a man with no insight walked in with the sink, there’s a podcast for that.
Want to know about charlatan, Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency Empire - propped up by Superbowl ads? (Pure BS in a ballgown.) There’s a podcast for that.
You want to know what libraries are doing to counter, and a ‘Universal Library’ movement modeled on the Library of Alexandria? Yep, there’s a podcast for that!
WHY DO I HIGHLY RECOMMEND PODCASTS? You see, on Twitter, and even Facebook, the Gram, and TikTok we are served morsels. Appetizers with artificial ingredients, fancied up with a sound byte or some click-baity headline. No context, just something that would power the rage machines.
Podcasts, by their very nature of being conversations and not ‘announcements’, are what the present day media lacks. Indeed some podcasts are full of what I might call brand juice. But in the main, they are stories with depth. They tend to not be part of the infinite hate machine.
On that note, here’s a shameless plug for my students at Benjamin Franklin High School.
THIS WEEK, STUDENTS IN MY COMPUTER CLASS stunned me when I put out the call to anyone who would host a podcast. I ended up with 17 podcasts in two days! Remember, these are 7th grade students. These 5-minute podcasts reflected their interests. Here’s a shortlist:
‘J.K. Rowlings Genius’ - Take a listen.
‘Secrets of the Amazon’
‘Is Dance a Sport’
‘Symphony Wars’
‘The History Nerds’
‘Economics Breakdown’
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If you don’t listen to podcasts, at least listen to this: A podcast featuring the aforementioned Dr. Sanjana Hattotuwa on ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Side of Social Media’ by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. I guarantee you’ll change your mind about podcasts!
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