Logging Off

 

I am losing patience with this macabre scorekeeping, in which participants on opposite sides of the political spectrum try to tell us which side is guilty of more mass shootings or high-profile assassinations. The important score is the total number of victims, and it’s sad that Charlie Kirk had to be added to it, no matter what you think of his politics. But TV host Bill Maher raises an important point: Many of the perpetrators of these crimes are not on anyone’s team, so to speak, as they are usually lone wolves with their own set of motivations and delusions.

But the next part of this game is fixing blame on an institution. Is it social media, which the governor of Utah called a “cancer?” He then urged us to log off.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with social media. They offer us human connection. But I do think many humans just can’t use them responsibly. It’s the easy access to an audience that drives some to use social media for good or ill, and it seems like the latter is winning.

But if users are having trouble acting responsibly, how about those running these companies? Their platforms’ algorithms are good at activating users. But are they dividing us by sparking rage against the “other side”? And what can we do about it?

Logging off is a start, but for how long? If a majority of users logged off for one day, they would send a message to the social media companies to change their ways. If the log-off period were longer, the message would be louder, and might even impact them financially. But would there be real change?

There is always the nuclear option: the repeal of Section 230, which currently protects the social media giants, and their users, from legal liability for what is published. The protection was useful in earlier days, but if those running these platforms aren’t able to control what they have created, repeal of 230 may be the only way to tame these tigers. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it may have to.

In the meantime, there’s a danger that if we all log off, we will tune out too – not good, at a time when it’s vital that we all stay engaged with what’s going on out there.