But somewhere along the way, visibility itself became the goal. Activism is now increasingly judged not by whether it changes institutions or improves lives, but by whether it travels online.

The algorithm does not reward effectiveness. It rewards emotional immediacy.

The op-ed is about protest movements, but the idea applies generally.  How else can you explain this level of stupid?  Or this frightening nightmare scenario?

Worst of all, people are making money – lots of money – perpetuating this situation.  Elections are often no longer driven by people knocking on doors and handing out flyers – nope, these days it’s all done with a smartphone.  And while the manipulation of social media is a skill unto itself it is not a skill that helps one perform in office, run a bureaucracy, and most importantly never helps someone understand what people are genuinely concerned about.  Thos trillion dollar companies are the social media firms and those incompetent state and local governments have used it to get elected rather than go out and listen to the people.

It is especially troubling when you learn these social media techniques are being used to produce downright evil.  The increasing rise of antisemitism in Europe and the United States is being driven in no small part by people segregating into social media groupings rather than acting in the real world with each other.

The effects are exacerbated by a failing education system:

Nearly three-quarters of voters don’t believe a college degree is worth the cost, according to a recent Fox News poll.

The less well educated one is, the more easily “influenced” one is.

This educational loss has been trending for years, but is rooted in calls for “equity” – as if everyone is equally capable of understanding advanced mathematics and adept at foreign languages.  They are just not.  The profs are protesting, but is anyone listening?

But fixing education alone is insufficient to responding to the corrosive effects social media is having on us.  We are losing touch with our essential humanity by stuffing it into a little tiny electronic box.  Yet, that is happening because that essential humanity is too easily compromised.  Before we can truly fix this issue, we need to fix ourselves.

And that is where Jesus steps into frame.

(BTW, we just worked our way through the pile of leftovers this week.)