We tend to think that TV is a passive media, that channel surfing is not a proper way to interact with the media. I haven't heard anyone say that watching the same game everyone else watches is an intelligent way to express oneself. At the same time we tend to think that social media, and now I'm talking about Facebook, is an active media, a tool to express real opinions and personality.
I disagree. My three years of Facebook will come to an end soon, mostly because I got sad, not so much because of issues regarding Facebook ethics. I did not see the embrace of the long tail; instead I saw the mass sharing of mass media. I did not see new ways of self expression; instead I saw endless quizzes and groups that were supposed to say something about the submitter. Finally, and I am a bad person: I did not connect with my old friends and colleagues; instead I remembered why I had originally disconnected from them.
Our new tools for self expression seem to have taken the communication into the next level, but in reality they just dictate the new rules of how to communicate. Limiting expression is on the other hand good; when I was a teenager, I could say everything I needed by wearing a certain t-shirt. But now we have so many t-shirts available that we forget they are just t-shirts. Liking is not the same thing than using your brain to come up with words that form sentences that somehow positively comment on the item. Joining a group is not the same thing than studying a subject and being ready to argue about it, again using words that form sentences. Checking boxes on a test and sharing the result is not the same thing than coming up with a personal way to make people smile, for example by selecting words that form funny sentences. Status updating and commenting (still) requires the use of text, but as a very bad person, I just see "hello everyone please notice me" messages filling up the feeds. I don't know how this single entry blog is any different, but I know there is a line somewhere, separating content from noise.
I get back to the channel surfing. What is the difference between clicking number buttons on a remote, showing it through the flashing light of your apartment window, and clicking like, share and join buttons of social media, showing it through the noise on your feed? When some selected families switch channels, they are registered in audience metrics, in web, every click counts. How big of a difference is that?
Finally, even if I am cynical now, I am a strong believer of positive future regarding communication and democracy and things like that. But I do not believe in the yadayada hallelujah of social media, the term has already died.
Text: Wesa Aapro
Photo: Vesa Metsätähti
