How Social Media Distracts

In response to the earlier Ego post, my good friend Leslie passed along this article. Excerpts:

“When the focus of our social efforts begins and ends with “raising awareness” through social media, we can’t help but become sucked into the general “me” or ego-based nature of internet politics in general. It’s all about “my” page, “my” online community, and “my” followers—while things like “our” cause, “our” struggle, or “our” progress take on a more rhetorical significance for when we want to engage more people in our individual expressions.

“In this type of egocentric cultural climate, it can be easy for activists to completely lose perspective. When we get too caught up in the reblogs, retweets, and ‘likes,’ we risk the content of our messages being overshadowed by the perception that people have of us as individuals who happen to be outspoken about these matters.”