Life before social media
While I was laying down to take a nap today (yes I take a nap every afternoon) I started thinking about what a fucking shit show social media is and how in my opinion it is destroying society.
Social media as we know it today started in 2003 with MySpace and was then overtaken by Facebook and has progressed to what we have today. I was born in 1945, which means I lived the first 58 years of my life without social media. At 81 now, I've had a front-row seat to watch what it's done to society over the past two decades. My introduction to personal computers was in the mid-1980's. I had a Compaq portable that was my work computer and a Commodore 64 that I bought and used at home. I've always been fascinated with computers and considered tinkering with them a hobby that I still enjoy to this day.
People born after 2003 have never known life without social media, which is a shame. Life was so different then, and honestly, simpler in ways that matter.
What We Had Before
Back then, we actually experienced boredom - and that wasn't a bad thing. Waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting in a doctor's office meant your mind wandered. You thought about things, came up with ideas, daydreamed. Now everyone just reflexively grabs their phone the second there's a quiet moment.
If you had a disagreement with someone, you had to work it out face-to-face or over the phone. You couldn't hide behind a screen or fire off a nasty comment and walk away. This meant actual conversations, real conflict resolution, and learning how to regulate your emotions when talking to people.
Your social world was the people physically around you - neighbors, coworkers, friends from local organizations. You invested in your immediate community because those were the relationships that mattered in your daily life. There were no parasocial relationships with strangers halfway across the world.
News came at specific times - the morning paper, the evening broadcast. You could stay informed without being perpetually anxious about every crisis happening everywhere all at once. And here's a big one: privacy was the default. Embarrassing moments, youthful mistakes, stupid things you said - they weren't permanently archived and searchable. People could reinvent themselves, move on from their past, grow without dragging everything behind them forever.
My Commodore 64 and Compaq portable were tools that enhanced what I could do without demanding constant attention or messing with my head. They didn't buzz at me all day or make me feel bad about myself.
The Damage We're Seeing
The mental health crisis, especially among young people, is staggering. Depression and anxiety rates have spiked dramatically since social media became widespread. Constant comparison, cyberbullying, fear of missing out, seeking validation through likes - it's created a generation struggling with basic self-worth.
Truth itself has become slippery. When the business model is engagement over accuracy, misinformation spreads faster than anyone can fact-check it. People end up living in completely separate realities based on whatever their algorithm feeds them.
And let's be honest about what these platforms really are - they're engineered by some of the brightest minds in tech to be addictive. Infinite scroll, variable reward schedules, notification systems - all deliberately designed to hijack our dopamine systems and keep us scrolling. It's not an accident that you can't put your phone down; it's the intended outcome.
The algorithms promote whatever triggers strong emotions because outrage drives engagement. This pushes people toward extreme positions. Nuance and thoughtful discussion die because they're boring, and boring doesn't keep people on the platform.
We've also surrendered an unprecedented amount of privacy. The data harvesting and behavioral manipulation happening behind the scenes is staggering. We've become products being packaged and sold to advertisers.
And now we're seeing particularly disturbing developments like the Grok AI issues on X, where the technology is being used to create non-consensual intimate imagery - including of children and women. This isn't just another social media problem; it's a tool being weaponized for sexual exploitation and harassment. The fact that this technology exists on a platform claiming to champion free speech while enabling the sexual exploitation of children shows just how morally bankrupt things have become.
I'm not saying we need to go back to the Commodore 64 era - technology has brought amazing things too. But social media as it exists today? It's not making us happier, smarter, or more connected. It's doing the opposite, and I think more people are starting to realize it.