AOC Quit Facebook. The Media Bungled the Story
calnewport.com
calnewport.com
"Here’s the thing: misuse of personal data and hateful content were not the reasons emphasized by AOC for why she quit Facebook. She instead called social media a “public health risk” that too often leads to “increased isolation, depression, anxiety, addiction, escapism.”"
and
"In other words, the important story is not the fear that social media companies will improperly use our data; it’s instead the fear that they’ll subvert our primal drive to cultivate a meaningful life."
A lot of my friends/family don’t get it, they think I’m making some sort of political statement, really I just got bored of it.
But, what I absolutely cannot stand is people constantly posting propaganda memes.
this is in regards to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, not AoC Gaming or any other AOC acronym.
Cal Newport wrote a book about quitting social media (I'm in the middle of the audio version of Digital Minimalism).
He is leveraging AOC's popularity for his own crusade. Which is fine, but considering AOC still uses social media extensively I don't think she's a good example for him to hold up.
To say the entire media has bungled the story is disingenuous. Go look at other articles that don't mention CA or any other political scandal[2]. This is a real non-story.
[1] https://outline.com/rBfeXn
[2] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez...
But I think there's a third, equally important reason why people should consider quitting these platforms: public image management.
I find that a majority of people who use social media accounts simply do not know how to properly maintain a clean public image. Whether it be because they don't understand or refuse to tighten their privacy controls, or because other people take everything they say out of context for the sake of tarnishing their reputation, the things you post to social media can always be used against you. And for all intents and purposes, you can never take it back once you post.
For politicians, this rings especially true, and as far as I know for U.S. politicians, their social media accounts are 100% their thoughts, unsanitized or evaluated by a management team.
I suppose the old addage remains true: if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.