Jaron Lanier’s 10 Reasons to Give Up Social Media

Heather Stillufsen

Jaron Lanier was born to a Nazi concentration camp survivor (as a blonde, his mother survived by pretending she was Aryan, and walking out). His father’s family escaped from Ukraine to avoid violent riots. Jaron himself used to work in Silicon Valley.

Then for his mental health, he gave up social media. He now spends his time offline as much as possible, which includes playing some of his collection of 1000 ancient musical instruments!

Like most of us, he is concerned that our world now seems to be controlled by not just social media, but a few powerful people who use it: Trump, Musk, Kanye etc. Named one of the world’s 50 greatest thinkers, his take is very interesting:

He says that Trump may still have won the Presidency without his own Truth social media, but likely would not have won without Facebook support. Lanier believes that Trump is a narcissist and bully, who is so insecure he has a social media addiction, as it’s important to him to know that ‘people like him’.

And that’s why he keeps posting lots of nonsense (in CAPITAL LETTERS!) whenever he has practically any thought.

And the only way to deal with this, is what you do with any narcissist (who is never going to change). You simply walk away:

Trump supporters seem nuts to me, and they say liberals seem nuts to them. But it’s wrong to say we’ve grown apart, and can’t understand each other. What’s really going on, is that we see less than ever before of what others are seeing. So we have less opportunity to understand each other. Jaron Lanier

Lanier’s 10 reasons to give up social media

You lose your free will (algorithms predict and share your behaviour, to make you predictable and manipulated)
It’s the only way to resist (nothing else is effective)
It’s making you into an asshole (encourages hostile and attention-seeking behaviour)
It’s undermining truth (misinformation spreads faster than facts)
It’s destroying your capacity for empathy (rapid loop ‘likes’ reduces human interaction)
It makes what you say meaningless (it only cares about soundbites)
It’s making you unhappy (constant social comparison leads to anxiety and depression)
It doesn’t want you to have economic dignity (personal data is harvested for profit)
It’s making politics impossible (algorithms create tribalism, enabling political manipulation)
It hates your soul (you are seen as a predictable robot rather than a human spirit)

More of Jaron’s societal wisdom

Funding a civilisation through advertising, is like trying to get nutrition, by connecting a tube from one’s anus to one’s mouth.

If money is flowing to advertising instead of musicians, journalists, and artists, then a society is more concerned with manipulation than truth or beauty. If content is worthless, then people will start to become empty-headed and contentless.

We cannot have a society, in which, if two people wish to communicate the only way that can happen is if it’s financed by a third person who wishes to manipulate them.

Celebrities who refuse to use social media

There’s no rule that says you or even famous people have to use social media. There are quite a few celebrities who never use it all. Be inspired by those who lead their lives in privacy, instead of online!

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch has said that social media is a place ‘where people either want to marry you or kill you’.
Actress Olivia Colman has never used social media. She has heard there are people pretending to be her. But says as she is not on it, she can’t see it, so just doesn’t worry about it.
Actress Keira Knightley once joined social media, and was so creeped out by it, she deleted her accounts within 24 hours.
Sandra Bullock (the woman men love and women want to be like) simply says she has better things to do with her time.
Mila Kunis (the actress wife of Ashley Kutcher) says no-one is interested in whether she’s visiting the bathroom!
George Clooney does not use social media. He says he is always saying stupid things by accident, and doesn’t want to do this on a worldwide platform!
Actress Cate Blanchett values her privacy, and also does not want to talk of her affluent life, as it could make others feel bad.

I didn’t know what Facebook was. And now that I do know what it is, I have to say – it sounds like a huge waste of time. The late great Betty White (‘Rose’ from The Golden Girls)