WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA CRISIS?*

LIVING IN SOMEONE ELSE’S IMAGE

In other articles, I talk about thoughts and emotions as chemicals and hormone-related, and how they affect and interact with body health and functions.¹

It is also worth talking about these thoughts, feelings and emotions as they relate to cultures and norms, and to perceptions and attitudes. As we talk about cultures we can not ignore social and cultural influences.
Public and individual opinions are mostly shaped, or at least affected, by what is known as social, public, and cultural norms and perceptions.

WHERE DO CULTURAL NORMS COME FROM AND HOW ARE THEY SHAPED?
Naturally, norms and perceptions are products of many factors such as established practices and attitudes, habits, religions, beliefs, history, personal and collective experiences, but most dangerously by mass “control” or mass “manipulation”.

We often hear about Nazi propaganda in World War II as demonstration to how dangerous manipulating public opinion through dissemation of information can be.
Surprise, Surprise!!!!
Looking at ways, means, and tools of today and how the public and individuals fall prey to them, Nazi propaganda would be a joke compared to how effective the modern cultural warfare we witness today.

It was not long ago when a foul word in a song would create public debate over properness, cultural hazard, and it’s implications to rape, sex crimes, and violence.
Today, families go on road trips with mom and pop joyfully rhyming to tunes with lyrics of private parts and what constitutes predatory criminal behavior in front of their underage or teenage kids.

BUT HOW DID IT ALL HAPPEN IN A MATTER OF COUPLE OF YEARS?
It did take Hollywood almost a century to turn woman from a cornerstone of family and society to a mere piece of flesh on the hood of a Corvette,…to sell a car that is.
WHAT DOES SELLING A CAR HAVE TO DO WITH WOMAN’S BREAST OR REAR END? you may ask.
Well, the answer is very simple. Effective car advertising has much to do with everything else such as sex, lust, public image, material-based self worth, consumerism, personal insecurity, mental health, and very much everything culture. In other words, to sell that Corvette you very much have to manipulate the masses, and brainwash consumers into subconsciously thinking that your worth is defined by attracting “hot chicks” that you can lure through that Corvette, which in turn will give you appeal, and subsequently success and self worth.

NOW, THINK ABOUT IT. WHAT DOES THIS MESSAGE BOIL DOWN TO?
Men are nothing but sexual predators, women are nothing but gold diggers, and that Corvette is very much the connection between the two that makes it all happen.

Today, we no longer call it advertising, marketing, or the Marlboro West.
Today, it is called Social Media, where increasingly majority of world population gets information, and where global perception, attitudes, behaviors, cultures, and conscience are affected, shaped, and formed.
Today, couple of college-dropout kids, with dangerous personal and global agendas that are entirely fueled by personal interest, greed, ideology, and hardly any public interest or benefit, control and shape influences on the masses.

And yes, the very same messages of sexual predator men and gold digger women become public perception embraced by the influencers and dissemated to the public of followers, thus creating the dysfunctional, self-destructive society we see today. Subconsciously, both women and men start depicting and manifesting their own versions of this exploitive commercial subliminal intent, themselves become own versions of predators and gold diggers. And more exotic cars, Gucci bags, and high ticket items are sold to fit in that delusional self image which victims relentlessly chase, where interactions turn from human, societal, and familial to merely self centered and transactional.

Instead of Hollywood, news anchors, and talk show hosts, the tools to influence today’s culture are called algorithms. Algorithms are not only numerical indicators or measures of behaviors or trends, rather are manipulated, doctored and controlled to shape those very perceptions, trends, and norms.

WHAT DOES SOCIAL MEDIA HAVE TO DO WITH HEALTH AND WELLNESS?
Almost a year ago to the day, I was mentoring a very bright young lady with amazing potential. At 25 years of age “Stephanie”, an alias, showed maturity, intelligence, life skills, and unmatched enthusiasm for life. Stephi, as I called her, was a social influencer with millions of followers on social media following every detail in her life as she posted on her accounts. One little problem, Stephi persona the world got to see and followers loved to follow was anything the Stephi she was, and the Stephi I got to know. In honor of her memory, I will not go into details about how the real Stephi felt and lived and the real life she experienced. Stephi lived a public persona she created that was not her, but what her followers wanted to see of her, or so she thought. Stephi would wake up in the morning feeling just like any of us, sometimes happy, sometimes cranky, and sometimes just wants to be left alone. No matter what, Stephi would put on what others expect of her, perform whatever content she thought her followers would like to see, and did just that; happy bubbly full of life Stephi.
In a nutshell, Stephanie thought she was playing the algorithms when in fact it was all about the algorithms playing her, and dictating to her the life those algorithms chose for her.

On good days, that performance made her day. On others, Stephi went on downward spiral of depression and hating life itself, and herself.

Stephi was enslaved to her slave master she herself created, and she gave up her own identity and self worth to number of likes, views, shares, and followers.

Stephi is no longer with us today and has not been for a little over a year. Her followers are still around following another public persona that does not exist except in their own imaginations and fantasies.

Every now and then some “influencers” and “followers” wake up to a reality check to rethink, reconsider, and sometimes “recover”, but I still don’t know how often, or if even enough, or soon enough.

The algorithms continue to create more and more influence, influencers, followers, and more Stephi’s.

Stock prices of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, meta verse, Google, YouTube, and Tik Tok continue to rise. Kids increasingly continue to take shady college dropouts for idols. Public mental health crisis continues melting down to unprecedented lows.² And we keep hearing of another Stephi every single day.

Some do something about it when they can, and many just keep getting more and more disillusioned by the shiny bling bling, and the Luis Vuitton’s.

I never followed Stephi, myself, for I wish she followed me instead.

All I have left of Stephi today is a memory of salmon birthday dinner she cooked for me in her last days, and a birthday card signed with a little heart of one amazingly promising human being.

As social media continues to grow, so do algorithms, influences, influencers, likes, shares and followers.

The Stephi population of influencers continues to grow as well, and we all grow increasingly more and more desensitized to a word that once actually did mean something.

It is more like a whole meaningful sentence, but just like everything pop culture got watered down to merely three letter abbreviation; “RIP” my dear.