When I first began blogging and vlogging over a decade ago, my intention was and has always been to use my online presence as a routing device back to reality. Before I signed up for my first Social Media account I wanted to make sure that those digital platforms served the same extended purpose as the local, regional and national work I was already doing. Whatever I shared, and still share with my online readership/viewership, is what I actually doing. After using these platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for a while I came to realize that many others didn't express that same sense of integrity. I realized that some people used these platforms to make a false identity, an Avatar; a digital icon or figure that misrepresents who they truly are. It was at this point that I also began to see the rationale behind why many people do this; lack of attention. From a Transactional Analysis perspective, Social Media has appeared to solve the problem of people needing recognition/stimulation, yet many people have also allowed it to immobilize them. Let me explain how this works...
In Transactional Analysis a "Stroke" is defined as a unit of recognition or attention that provides stimulation to a person. A certain degree of satisfaction comes after that stimulation is given. Babies who don't receive positive Strokes can develop RAD [Reactive Attachment Disorder] or even die from not receiving psychology/physical attention.
Prior to Social Media, conditional Strokes were given to a person based upon what they actually did or were recognized for doing. With Social Media a person is given that same attention, and oftentimes more, for doing absolutely nothing. It's a Stroke psychologically yet digitally it's a unit used to help create Social Media content algorithms that predicts what you want to see and hear. Every post that is engaged positively or negatively is a unit of recognition. A person can get more units of attention for simply posting that they want to write a book, they are trying to register for school, they hope to get married and they wish to get a job as opposed to actually doing any of those things. The Social Media Strokes people receive makes them feel accomplished, without the need to actually accomplish anything, and that is one reason most people don't follow through. Why should they? They've already been rewarded with recognition, for doing nothing. There are many people caught in this cycle of attention and Social Media has immobilized them. They're now accustomed to units of attention that is purely based upon simulating what they want, try, hope and wish to do in life. That ain't living.
Being immobile in today's society is aligned to apathy; one of the most powerless spaces to be in. It is a powerless space because we are no longer in an Information Age, we are in an Instigation Age. Before Social Media Stroke culture, allies were real folks who supported a common cause through investing actual money, time and/or resources. Nowadays digital allies may "like" or "❤" a post which usually doesn't translate into any real direct action. What we need nowadays are Instigators; folks who are proactively investing money, time and/or resources to support a common cause without being asked to.
Speaking of being dormant, I gave an underground railroad tour to about 80 youth and a few adult chaperones at our Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center recently. After they went through our space I debriefed them about what they saw and experienced. I asked them did they recognize any present day social injustices that reflects similar limits that impede a person's freedom today. Nearly everyone in the group raised their hands. When I asked who is going to do something about it only one person raised their hand. I told them that I was very disappointed and I passionately explained how their apathetic response is one of the primary reasons that injustices like this continue to exist! I also shared some examples of what they can do to change that narrative.
Social Media can be a very powerful, positive and progressive tool if it is used in an authentic way. Like with any addictive substance, once a person becomes addicted to the attention their false identity receives it is also very hard to kick the habit. Understanding the impact of our platforms, managing its use and engaging others is vital to our mental stability and physical well being. What we often see online is an amplified projection of what folks wish they were in real life. Sometimes the bold trolls we encounter are socially awkward people sitting at a cubicle in some telemarketing office. That "Woke" person going LIVE every day in some room with wrinkled cloth tacked to the wall behind them may "wake up" everyday after 12pm because they don't even have a job. Some folks only take pictures from the waist up or contort their bodies to give an illusion of something that doesn't exist. Like narcotics, alcohol or sex, some of us enjoy indulging in stuff like this because it is an entertaining escape from reality... Yet we are at a point now where researchers in the areas of Neurocognition, Psychology, Sociology, Physiology, Biostatistics and etc. are just scratching the surface on how Social Media is affecting, and infecting, us. I say "infecting" because anything that goes viral is based upon the idea of a virus, an infectious agent.
As we move further into a technological age where the implementation of AI [Artificial Intelligence] is becoming move prevalent in our every day world, the line between what is fake and what is real is getting thinner and thinner. We must ask ourselves what that will mean for our future generations and how can this technology be used to reinforce their mental stability and physical well being. Can it be used? When I wrote the book GAMES; Transactional Analysis, Trick-Knowledge and the Psychology of People Running Game, my goal was to teach people how to recognize and break unhealthy cycles like that and its concepts are also apply in a digital domain, people play the same games. There is some perceived hole within a person, and in their life, that they try to fill with digital attention. No amount of "likes", "❤s", reshares, comments or DMs can fix that. It requires realtime work, offline.
Peace,
Saladin
As we move further into a technological age where the implementation of AI [Artificial Intelligence] is becoming move prevalent in our every day world, the line between what is fake and what is real is getting thinner and thinner. We must ask ourselves what that will mean for our future generations and how can this technology be used to reinforce their mental stability and physical well being. Can it be used? When I wrote the book GAMES; Transactional Analysis, Trick-Knowledge and the Psychology of People Running Game, my goal was to teach people how to recognize and break unhealthy cycles like that and its concepts are also apply in a digital domain, people play the same games. There is some perceived hole within a person, and in their life, that they try to fill with digital attention. No amount of "likes", "❤s", reshares, comments or DMs can fix that. It requires realtime work, offline.
Peace,
Saladin
