Goodbye, X

 I left 'X' (the former Twitter) today.  Deactivated my account permanently.  I'd been on the site since... 2009?  Something like that.

Goodbye

Mainly, I was following the Marie Kondo question- "Does this bring joy?"- and more and more, the answer was a resounding 'no'.  The original concept of Twitter- a place where anyone could post a short message- was great.  People could put up short messages, break news, come up with witty quips.  I followed a lot of people on the site; not only friends, but whoever was in a field that interested me; poker players, professional wrestlers, chefs (I picked up a ton of recipes).  

Was there politics?  Absolutely- I followed several people, not only people who I agreed with (Jonah Goldberg, Megan McArdle), but people I disagreed with (Matthew Yglesias) to see their opinion.  

But over time, the site got more and more toxic.  And yes, part of the blame belongs to Elon Musk- a man who has some brains and a ton of resources and seems to be using them to be a player in a culture war.  But he just greased the skids- this has been coming for a long time.

Social media- Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, etc- has been a powerful tool.  It's given everyone access to a megaphone that can be heard across the planet.  But it's a tool that we've abused, and one that I don't think we are ready to handle properly.  The rise of social media has been accompanied by a rise of depression, and we as a species are far more toxic to each other than we were 30 years ago.  

I would have guessed a tool that would let us see the insights of everyone on the planet would help us understand each other.  On this, I've been proven wrong so far.

Much like the Supercomputer in Wargames, I've realized that social media is a strange game, and the only winning move is not to play.  So I've withdrawn from the world's megaphone.  I don't expect to ever be back.

What the hell happened?

 I am utterly fascinated by this chart:

Not the political aspect- Liberals being more depressed than conservatives, or women being more depressed than men.  I'm sure there are a 1,000 theories explaining that.

What I'm fascinated is why depression starting rising in 2014, and continues to rise today.

What the hell happened in 2014?

If it had started in 2008, I'd explain it was because of the economic collapse.  If it had started in 2001, I'd blame 9/11.  If it had started in 2020, I'd understand it was because of COVID.

But 2014?  What gives?

I don't see it as politics- in 2014, Congress went from Democrats to the Republicans... but the Democrats held the White House.  And since 2014, we've gone through every iteration of the two parties being in and out of power.  Depression keeps rising.  So I don't see politics being the cause of the depression.

I have two theories, and I suspect it's a combination of both, plus other factors I haven't realized yet.

The first was offered by my friend Don Mewha- who aruged that we've always been this depressed and are just doing a better job measuring.  It's a valid theory... I do think people are more willing to accept being depressed nowadays compared to the past, and that this is a recent development.

And yet... if this were the main cause, I'd expect a sudden jump in depression levels, not a steady rise over the years.  I'd also expect it to even out.  And- this is anectotal- more people I know first seem more depressed or angry now than they did a decade earlier. I'm not ruling out this idea, but I don't think this is the main reason

My other theory?  Social Media.  Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram.  It was around before 2014, but we seemed to have reached a critical mass right around when the depression levels shot up:

I'm not quite sure why there is a strong correlation between social media usage and depression levels.  Maybe because social media is a drug that pours outrage and awful behavior into it's users.  Maybe because as people have to ability to speak to the world and listen to anyone in the world, they are drawn to the most horrific stories, depressing them.  Maybe...

I don't know why.  But there seems to be a strong correlation- to the point that, if I were a father, I'd ban my children having a cell phone or account on social media until they had graduated highe school.  

I am open to being wrong on my theories.  But I don't know a better one that explains things.