Do We Really Need Social Media?

What should we make of the fact that X, formerly known as Twitter, is now owned by a guy who seems to relish the idea that social media should be a communications device open to the verbal hectoring of every crackpot, asshole, racist, Fascist and shithead with the physical ability to push a few buttons on a computer or droid and form a couple of words?

And let’s not buy into Musk’s nonsense about how he’s a ‘free speech absolutist’ because the only free speech he seems concerned about promoting is the speech of fear-mongering assholes like Alex Jones who claims he’s on the Deep State’s hit list because he told the ‘truth’ about the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Believe it or not, I’m glad that Musk has restored the formerly absent accounts of people like Alex Jones and Donald Trump, because this strategy represents what social media has become and how we should consider our options for using it going forward.

And when I use the word ‘our’ in the context of this spiel, I am obviously referring to those of us who know ‘for a fact’ that the alt-right are nothing but a bunch of fools.

First and most important about social media channels like X is that nobody is forcing anyone else to open or maintain a user account. I have an account, but I only use it from time to time to promote my stories and I…