My resolution for 2023

I watched Meet the Press on New Year’s Day. It was a special edition dedicated to the impact of social media on society. The growing addiction to these powerful brain-stem reward systems, the pernicious power of social media algorithms that feed us more and more content to reinforce commercial and often political influences and the almost entirely unregulated and opaque atmosphere in which social media has been allowed to burgeon at great potential peril to our kids, our mental health as adults and even our fundamental democracy.

Cloaked in “free speech” the dangers of highly profitable social media companies are almost immune from legal challenges that have, in the past, ultimately provided consumers with protection from undisclosed efforts to promote harmful, addictive products. Think tobacco and opioids.

“Unsafe at Any Speed” helped awaken consumers to the dangers of unsafe automobiles and led to seatbelt laws that have saved millions of lives. With the exception of a few whistleblowers like Facebook’s Frances Haugen, there’s precious little illumination available to inform and warn us about the clear and present danger of social media to the fabric of our lives and to society at large.

I know, for myself, that I travel through my day joined at the hip to a screen. I choose Facebook and Instagram interaction above reading, creating, exercising and in-person interaction. I have become increasingly passive and inert: buying things I don’t need, reading things of little importance and seeking the constant reinforcement of likes and clicks.

Oh, sure, there’s much good available through connection with friends and loved ones via Social Media, and, in fact, at its core, founders of social media platforms surely intended this as its core mission. (Except, maybe for Tik Tok whose motives remain clouded by suspicious connection with the Chinese government.)

But I know, for me, at least, that Facebook and Instagram, my personal social media platforms, have begun to control my life in a way that is robbing me of authentic quality of life. I have decided to make a behavior change by removing Facebook and Instagram from my devices.

I will surely miss my connections and interaction, but pledge to redouble my efforts to stay in touch more personally and directly. I have a pen, and a phone, and indeed ears and heart to stay connected to those I treasure. I will write and share at http://www.bgarrand.com and will welcome interacting with you there.

I urge you to watch Meet the Press January 1 edition (also available as a podcast.) Read the work of Frances Haugen and others who are working tirelessly to examine the clear and present danger of social media.

Communicate with members of Congress urging them to regulate the social media behemoths. And stay in touch. I will. I promise.