‘Tis The Season to Hate The Internet | The Stoner Mom Diaries

My relationship with the internet is in trouble. 

I don’t know how to start this, so I’ll just say it. I hate Facebook. I hate it. And I’m seething with anger and outrage about Russia and our election. And this isn’t even a Trump problem- other than that time he invited Russia to hack and harm us on international television and no one gave two shits. This is about Putin being smarter than our government, former and current. It’s about Putin knowing how blind and vulnerable and full of hate and divide we are, and using that vulnerability to take advantage of Trump’s lack of loyalty to the American people. It’s about our technology being smarter than us, and us getting dumber and less informed.

Of  all of the things we willingly let Facebook and Twitter and Google and all these other bazillion dollar companies that don’t give a fuck about me or mine, do, this is just the most egregious.

A Year Ago, Facebook Said It Was “Crazy” That Fake News Could Have Influenced The Election

Russian Influence Reached 126 million through Facebook Alone

How Facebook and Google Served Up Ads for Racists and Anti-Semites

98 Personal Data Points That Facebook Uses to Target Ads to You

If, like our president, you believe Putin’s denials in influencing our campaign, check out some of these Frontline interviews.

And all of this political drama says nothing about the phenomena of grown ass adults using Facebook as irresponsibly as they possibly can. Or of just how shitty and toxic people seem to feel comfortable behaving on the platform. When every single person you are remotely connected to feels it’s appropriate to go into a public space and spew uneducated diarrhea because it’s the only time they feel listened to, um, well it makes the whole damn website suck.

Facebook is very clearly a public space, and yet people seem shocked when their public behavior on the platform turns people off to the point of ruining real ass relationships. Here’s what I think. If you are nasty and negative online, it is highly likely that you are nasty and negative in real life. 

The Fake Americans Russia Created to Influence the Election

Then I read this piece about YouTube on medium, and it’s just the same bullshit, on a scale built for children. Humanity, art, and media, rapidly evolving into international robots creating content for human children. Guess what? The bots give less a shit about you than the companies do.

Something Is Wrong on the Internet

I feel like we’re losing control of the systems we built. The Internet was supposed to give everyone equal access to knowledge, instead it’s evolved into rival factions that don’t speak to one another. Social media was supposed to connect us across distance, instead we use it as a space to insult the real people who are reading. YouTube and digital sharing was supposed to break old fashioned systems of media production. Instead videos made by robots, viewed by robots and commented on by robots, garner millions of views from real children.

Let’s Get Back to Something Real

We removed Facebook and all related apps from our phones. When I need to do a live session in my FB group, I redownload the app (oh and it always remembers my log in info despite being deleted, how… nice), do the live sesh, and then delete it the app again. Takes less than a minute and I don’t have Mood Poison on my phone 24/7.

When I do want to engage on FB, I use my computer. I’m more invested and interested in what I read and say. Remember when we all used FB on actual computers? Instead of allowing them access to our contacts, phone, camera, and everything else that lives in our phone? I’m going back to that.

The next thing I need to do is write down the role of all social media platforms in my life and in my business. For instance, my personal accounts. What do I share there, who do accept requests from, etc, how often should I even be checking it. On my business accounts, how important is it that they actually exist? Do I need a Twitter account if I’m legit never on Twitter?

Lastly, my intent starting like now, is to use my website and blog as my main online space. I want it to feel like the good old days of blogging, before I became a one woman cannabis education show. Here’s why. Cannabis is one, large yes, but ONE aspect in my life. One role I play. I wrote about that in my last blog post.

Basically, I want to lesson online social stress on other platforms. If I must be online, I want to be in a place that I built, and that I feel safe in.

One more thing, a sidebar. I have tickets to see my queen, Lana del Rey, this January. And I’ve been really loving this song from her most recent album. It’s called When the World Was at War Before… We Just Kept Dancing. And I like to remember that when media tells me I’m a tweet away from nuclear disaster. Instead of worrying, or caring, I’m dancing.