Gradually, Then Suddenly

Sometimes, the losses come incrementally

Dear Friends,

In Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, one character asks, “How did you go bankrupt?” The other responds, “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

I’ve been noticing a similar phenomenon this month of January as friends of mine leave Facebook in light of changes in its content moderation policies. People who see what appears to be Meta’s willful move loosening restrictions on misinformation and hateful speech will remember what happened to Twitter after Elon Musk bought the company, renamed it X, and then welcomed back all the bad actors who had been previously banned or restricted because of their penchant for spreading hateful content, harassing and abusing other users, inciting violence, or just spamming people with advertisements.

Twitter used to be the place where we engaged with strangers or heard from notable users, while on Facebook we shared pictures of our vacations and our children and stayed connected with friends from our childhoods or college days.

At one point I had 6,000 followers on Twitter, several hundred of whom I have met. On Facebook I have 2,600 friends, almost all of whom I have met. I used to believe Twitter better represented the world, where Facebook better represented my existing communities. Also, Facebook has been the place where my wife Kate has posted photos of our kids over the years.

Several of my Facebook friends have announced their exit from Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. One wrote this as her final post: “I'm done. For my own mental health, I have to step away from platforms that support a racist, misogynistic, [redacted]. And I'm done with the people who support him or his cronies. Not that many people care.”

Another wrote this (in part): “My friends, this is my last Facebook post. I’ll miss you. I’ll miss the pictures of family and friends, the dance, aikido, the animal videos and the ease of staying in touch, but there are much larger and more dangerous issues at work, than my personal comfort and pleasure.

In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, Amnesty International and the UN came to the same conclusion that META Facebook’s lack of fact monitoring and “hate-spiraling” algorithms were directly related to the violence in Myanmar that resulted in murder, torture, rape and displacement of the Rohinga people. To their credit, Facebook immediately began monitoring online posts for truthfulness having seen firsthand how, in countries with weak institutions, online violence quickly spreads offline. Now in an abrupt about-face, to stay current with Donald Trump’s values (and threats), Mr. Zuckerberg gaslights us by disguising what is actually a “safety” issue as a “free speech” issue.

Another wrote this: “This platform has deteriorated so much that even if I didn't object to the supplication of Meta's CEO to T***p, I would be migrating away. Too many ads (not that I'd buy any product advertised here) and an endless stream of new sites with historic photographs, fake alumni groups, cute cat and dog videos, all admonishing me to follow or join.”

Some of these people I know glancingly, and some I know well, having dined with them on multiple occasions. Some will leave Facebook altogether, while others will be discoverable only as placeholders, with their last posts greeting anyone who comes by to reconnect or post a birthday message.

We can all point to examples of the “gradually, then suddenly” phenomena. I think of my late mom’s cognitive decline, the way our climate has changed in my lifetime, the experiences of my friends who have battled addiction (including social media addiction), or recent threats to American democracy.

In an article published recently titled “Who Will Stand Up to Trump’s Broligarchs?,” Scott Roxborough points out that “Joe Biden, in his final Oval Office speech on Jan. 15, had warned of [] ‘An oligarchy’ of the ‘tech industrial complex’ whose ‘extreme wealth, power, and influence … threatens our entire democracy.’” Now that the world’s richest 500 people have a net worth of more than ten trillion dollars, and now that many of the world’s richest men have committed themselves to Trump policies, we might wonder what room there is in the democratic process for the rest of us.

How much is ten trillion? Measured in dollars, that’s about 38% of the entire U.S. economy. Measured in seconds, that’s more than 317,000 years, before the emergence of homo sapiens.

The late Senator Paul Wellstone said, “As free citizens in a political democracy, we have a responsibility to be interested and involved in the affairs of the human community, be it at the local or the global level.”

Following Wellstone’s lead, perhaps we become freer when we turn away from Facebook, and instead focus on embodied and interpersonal communities? I can offer no defense against the algorithms of broligarchs, but I’m glad to offer alternative distractions in the form of hosted events where friends can gather with their phones tucked away, taking time to look in the eyes of their compatriots, or to spend time with a poet or an actor who will take the stage and whisk you away from such troubles.

And if you can’t join me, consider a book! As Mason Cooley says, “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”

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Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1. Mottos and Slogans and Acronyms. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and what?

2. Internet Culture. Influenced significantly by growth in the technology sector, the net worth of the world’s 500 richest people has recently surpassed which of the following: $100 billion, $1 trillion, $10 trillion, or $1 quadrillion?

3. Newspaper Headlines: Inauguration Headwear. Melania wore a wide-brimmed navy hat, like Zorro’s. Ivanka wore something on her head that starts with a B. What was it?

P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night at the Natsoulas Gallery in Davis is February 7. It'll be a wide-open mic!