Journal 6- Mark Zuckerberg Stole My Parents
As I sit here, I weep for what could have been. I could have my dad's full attention on me and my family. My mom could be spending more time with her friends or tendering to her garden reading books, learning about more plants and fruits. My Dad could have been interested in having more conversations with people in the real world. If only Mark Zuckerberg did not steal them away from me.
You might be thinking is the writer of this blog post 12 years old? Or was his family just dysfunctional to begin with? Hah. I am more than double that age and my family was an actual family sending time together until circa 2016 to be honest. And if you ask me, its even worse for younger kids today because they probably never even got to know their parents. Every 12 year old's parent has been stolen too. I am sure you know as well how they were stolen. You are seeing him steal your parents too in real time. You see, my old folks are spending most of their free time doom scrolling on their little glowing screens. It could have been somewhat alright if the doom scrolling was serving as a replacement for their newspaper reading habits. But alas, they are scrolling facebook reels all day everyday.
This doesn't sound the alarm in your head as much as it should right? But it is only because spending time on little screens, away from real world, has been dramatically normalized. As per my estimate, my parents are averaging 6-7 hours on their phones everyday. Can you imagine? A retired couple who could be doing so much in their community and outside world are choosing to spend their free time watching AI slop videos and reels. And the funny thing is it is making them miserable.
Allow me to explain.
When my dad watches reels, he is not watching them for entertainment. He is being exposed to emotions that he shouldn't especially in his senior years- envy, fomo & outrage. The content on his device is mostly about viral news, fake news, travel content from vloggers, children doing amazing things and their achievements, families doing things together (for content ofc) and you get the impression. This is making him compare his own accomplishments, his children's accomplishments to random people on the internet. My mom is stuck watching content around religious spirituality and emotional reels that invoke insecurity and much more in her own life. Occasionally, they do share a few reels throughout the day in our family whatsapp group. Each and every reel is just "content". They are so engrossed in watching content that I don't even see them reading the newspaper or watching TV news anymore. It is a rare breath of fresh air. And when they do, I can see the hurriedness in their approach. And its not just the replacement- Mark stole them from me and the real world to get them hooked on his product that just makes them feel bad emotions all day. If this does not make Mark a drug dealer and his company a cartel then I don't know what would if you ask me.
My biggest worry is this is just one life we all get and if we spend 5-6 hours on average each day watching content then we are effectively spending 2 full years out of every 10 years on our phones. What the actual fucking fuck? Its already been 5 years for my folks since their phone usage reached peak hours and I am afraid they have already lost 1 full year they could have spent travelling, with their friends or just their own kids!
Mark why did you do this? I know its not just you but your whole enterprise. But you could have chosen to make the social media serve a utility than stealing my parents attention. My mom gets served emotional and religious reels all day and she is a completely different person now. I do not recognize her needs anymore because she has been reprogrammed by your algorithms. The way our parents think, feel and expect has been completely reshaped by the content they are watching. My dad watches triggering content all day when he could have been spending time with his tennis club buddies. And its not just my parents who have been stolen. When I travel by subway or public transport, I see everyone from all ages and walks of life glued to their screens. Most are watching content on your platforms, Mark! You stole parents of my friends, cousins and everyone I know. And worst part of this all is that I can't even strike up a conversation with anyone too because its creepy to talk to strangers in the real world now.
And it is not like I have not tried to free my folks from your psychological stronghold. I made them watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix. I spoke to them about the dangers of social media addiction. I tried to talk to them. But to no avail. My real world boring conversations don't stand a chance against the dopamine hit you are giving them every 30 sec on their devices.
I grieve. I mean this is all I can do now.