I think that most of us Masons probably joined our prefered social media platforms to see pictures of our grandkids, keep abreast of events at our Lodge, and have a chance to interact with other Masons around the world. For all of those things, social media can be a hugely positive influence.
But the reality of social media use can be something quite different. We, as individuals, are the product that social media companies sell. They sell our attention to advertisers. As a result, those companies do all that they can to keep us on their platform for as much time as possible. To do this they utilize sophisticated algorithms that ensure we receive a strong dose of content specifically curated to bring forth an emotional response within us. All of this is highly personalized, so what I see is different than what you see.
All of this is called the ‘attention economy’ and it is highly damaging to our society. Those things that are most inflammatory (to us as individuals) are served up to us in our newsfeeds, and by their very nature, work against mutual understanding. This has resulted in an unraveling of civility within our society, a toxification of our political sphere, and a situation where we are all starting to see everyone who might disagree with us as being somehow ‘other’ or the enemy.
We need to face the fact that no civil society can survive in which anyone with a differing viewpoint is viewed as an enemy.
We also need to own up to the fact that each of us are contributing to our own destruction by mindlessly scrolling through our newsfeeds.
We simply need to stop.
When we look at many of the tragedies reported on the news, we can see that the people who committed the crimes were often at least in part radicalized by the content they consumed on social media. Social media, by its very nature, creates individual silos of information for its users, information specifically designed to create an emotional response, quite often an inflammatory response. Given that, is it any wonder that a daily diet of this content will lead an otherwise good individual into incivility, or a person with pre-existing emotional problems into a dark downward spiral?
When these things happen and are widely reported, power mad politicians land blows against the freedoms that are our birthright, seeking to engage in censorship and control. When trying to seize new powers, politicians always seem to forget that at some future point, the other side will take over. That the new powers that they seek to use against their enemies will soon enough be in their enemies hands to be used against them. This too is a dark downward spiral. Luckily in the United States the protections put into place by our founding fathers have kept many of these urges at bay. So far. That may change. That has certainly changed in other western countries.
Taken together, it is easy to see that our nation is in a dark downward spiral, hurtling towards interest group tribalism, incivility, and intolerance. If nothing changes our world will be a much darker place for our grandchildren than it was for us.
All because we are allowing ourselves to become a product for the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to sell. All because we are allowing those who direct these platforms to get unbelievably wealthy through the intentional poisoning of our minds.
Yet Freemasonry offers Light.
We know what we have to do to stop this from negatively impacting us as individuals, and we know how to set a shining example for others to follow.
We simply have to do as we are called to do. We simply have to ‘subdue our passions.’
Let’s use social media as we intended to use it. Let’s use it to check out pictures of our grandkids. Let’s use it to keep track of our Lodge and our Brothers. Let’s use it to celebrate Masonic successes and Masons around the world.
Let’s not engage with ignorant or uninformed political content that was created with the sole intention of inflaming our emotions. Let’s ignore those garbage memes. Let’s remember to respect the office, even if we can not respect the person holding it. Before we post or share or re-tweet, let’s ask ourselves if what we are intending to say will reflect well upon us as men and as Masons.
Let’s take the Square, Plumb, and Level to each of our posts, before we send them out to the world. Ensure that they are true and sound. Let’s do our best to ensure that each post we make brings a flame of light to all those who follow us, not a shroud of darkness.
By doing these things we protect ourselves, and we work in a very tangible way to bring a bit of light to our world.
We also hurt the pocketbooks of those who for years now have been working diligently to poison us emotionally, and that isn’t a bad thing either.
By working to learn to subdue our passions and improve ourselves in Masonry, online, just as we do offline, we make our world a better place.
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Thank you for this great article MW. This fits nicely with my summer Masonic Tribune article. I am on my way to eye surgery this morning but will visit later today. This is a “passionate” topic for me!
Well said Grand Master.
The study of cognitive psychology teaches us how we’re manipulated and recognizing that manipulation is the beginning of limiting its influence. Authors worth reading are Frank Luntz (Words that Work) on the political right and Drew Westen (The Political Brain) or George Lakoff (The Political Mind) on the left.
When we as humans experience persuasion that reinforces our preexisting beliefs, we get a small dose of dopamine. When those beliefs are challenged we often experience a mini fight or flight response. This brain chemistry rooted in human survival instincts from time immemorial feeds the phenomenon of confirmation bias and is used by persuaders to motivate us often by dividing us.
We each want to believe we are governed by logic but the truth is even our strong belief in logic is rooted in emotion, our ancient survival instincts, and our preexisting bias.