When everyone has access to a platform and the freedom to say whatever they want to say, curation becomes ever most vital to creating a space that serves their mental health best. While this is challenging to impose IRL, as you don’t always get to choose who you’re surrounded by—ie, blood relatives, coworkers—it’s far easier managed, and should be managed, online.
My personal X account is a little all over the place. I follow accounts run by friends, both in-person and online; coworkers at a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization, a web3-based org); various liberal-leaning individuals with both thought-provoking and fun content; a handful of conservative-leaning individuals who offer their viewpoints with a healthy level of respect; and a bunch of shitposters, because I appreciate those standing at the edge of the void screaming into it alongside me. It’s generally a fun and educational experience to scroll through my feed. Trolls and bots are fairly abstracted, which I usually will not come across unless I dive into the replies of a heavily-charged post. This has been made possible by my generally hard stance on who has direct access to me and what I desire to see on my timeline. Lots and lots of curation. In sum, I tend to have a Pretty Good Time on X.
I recently began following a new account—well, not new per se, but rather new to me. I’d seen posts by this person pop up in my For You feed and either found them amusing or validating of my own beliefs. After a few likes and reposts, I decided to follow them, and it’s only been a few days but I’m already considering unfollowing them. It’s clear the algorithm initially only displayed those posts I’d find interesting, and I’m realizing that those posts are few and far between. Everything else is noise, and not the “Talking My Thoughts Out Loud” type of noise, which usually isn’t all that terrible when coming from those I already follow. Nay this is the “Draw Out the Trolls and Pick a Fight with Each and Every One” type of noise which would otherwise be humorous if it wasn’t so goddamned exhausting. In conjunction with these posts, this individual will often call on their followers to take up the fight for them. What results is a timeline that quickly fills up with Quote-Posts—let’s shorten this to QT because we all understand the reference—of garbage replies tapped with a call-to-action; it’s a dumpster fire of emotionally charged, low intellect drivel being drawn out and responded to in-kind.
Now, I’m all for Calling Out the Trolls, because they need a heavy hand when wrangling, but this particular form of it isn’t productive in any way. I generally follow persons who will address problems with logic, in an effort to dismantle arguments and drive a particular point home. Despite trolls being trolls, more often than not this results in discourse, andeven if the two sides fail to resolve their differences, I often leave those threads with greater respect for those who meaningfully engaged. What I’m seeing in the individual’s posts mentioned above, however, is not this. The resulting thread of replies is more akin to primate shit-slinging than human conversation. As a result, I’m left feeling embarrassed for the original poster, but more so for their followers who blindly throw themselves into the fray at the slightest whim of their fearless leader.
It’s MAGA/QAnon behavior, but left-leaning, and on a much smaller scale.
Where I was once having a Pretty Good Time on X, my peace of mind has been disrupted and I’m now contemplating my life choices. I was aware that such mindlessness existed, but because of my careful curation, I was able to limit my exposure to it. On the one hand, this experience is serving as a solid reminder that no, most people are not, in fact, capable of intelligent discourse online. On the other hand, I can applaud myself for doing a fine job at insulating myself from the worst of them.
The point is, curation matters. You don’t have to look at garbage on your timeline if you don’t want to.
Now, maybe you’re reading this and thinking “but nonsense, this actually sounds pretty great” as you reach for a bucket of butter-drenched and well-salted popcorn in preparation to watch The Shit Show. More power to you! If your idea of a Pretty Good Time is watching the rapid devolution of our species, well, there is no lack of entertainment for you in that realm. Just take care not to get too close or you’ll walk away soiled and smelling of shit.
Anyway, here’s a composite of a subject I created using AI-generated art and an image from Unsplash:
