DISTANT

Around 2010 social media became part of humanity’s daily routine, affecting all of us whether we used it or not as humanity developed digital tribes and searched for digital identity.

A digital pandemic started social distancing well before the COVID pandemic, removing the need to be face-to-face...

And when humans don’t see each other’s faces, humans don’t behave well.

Socials have become contentious containers that can breed and feed resentful, extreme humans as humanity is more narcissistic, self-serving, self-aggrandising when we no longer look into each other’s eyes.

Humans high in narcissism have more “friends”, as negativity and extremes are pushed, hyped and rewarded ruining it for the rest of us. Bullying is now subtler, continuous and actions and reactions are never digitally forgotten. Competition, comparison and the lack of emotional connection may get engagement but also disturbs and disrupts humanity’s true wealth and health.

We need to generate and be accountable to a new collective, digital morality. We need to decide where freedom of speech ends and hate speech starts. Social accounts, like bank accounts, need i-D as humanity needs to be named and if need be, shamed. We need controls, laws and collective morals around privacy, data and the monetisation of the attention economy. We need to educate ourselves and decide if being right or being popular is more important than being human.

Socials and the technology, business models and activity that drive them are a reflection of our humanity so let’s ensure, together that social distancing, the digital kind, does not become the real pandemic of our time.

#beinghuman #technology #socialmedia