On “Un-inventions,” Social Media & Music

Daily writing prompt

If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

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I slipped into the bucket seat of the Mazda3 Time Machine, pressed the start button and maneuvered the hatchback through the backstreets of our tiny hamlet, puttering past folks walking their dogs and others out for a stroll. One road leads to a next and then, finally, the highway. I flipped the switch for the Flux Capacitor V8 and pressed the pedal to the metal. The engine roared, the car jolted forward—and within a minute (maybe two), I blasted into the past…  

In theory, time traveling to right a historic wrong sounds like a good idea. If we make it so the incident or event never happened, we’d be better off. Right? Perhaps. But perhaps not. A recent theory posits that no matter what we interlopers from the future may do, our impact will be nil. Says physicist Germain Tobar, “[T]he salient events would just recalibrate around you. Try as you might to create a paradox, the events will always adjust themselves, to avoid any inconsistency.” See this Popular Mechanics article for more.

If we could guarantee that the change would stick, however, I’d point my Time Machine towards the streets of Silicon Valley, park near the C-suites that oversaw the creation of social media—and pull the plug. The old internet, which consisted of websites, message boards, and email groups, provided plenty of space to converse with one another in what was essentially a sprawling metropolis. It featured corporate and indie endeavors, all on an equal footing. Some boards and groups had moderators, others let (almost) everything fly. Power was dispersed across the many, not the few.

As I see it, the “evolution” of social media has resulted in a handful of oligarchs controlling everything and, worse, fueled an epidemic of ignorance. Conspiracy theories, too, have taken root. Yes, of course, history is rife with people who should’ve known better—but most never spread their nonsense beyond their neighborhood bars. The oligarchs have mainstreamed nuttiness because nuttiness is sticky; it keeps people on their platforms. Click on one story and you’re fed more of the same, creating the illusion of consensus when, in truth, it’s simply a reflection on your specific interests. (In my case, for example, I see posts and videos about cats big and small, giraffes and singer-songwriters, not to mention elephant and bears—and kooky theories about time travel, too.)

There’s a larger rant I could have, I know, but a few years back I decided to make my blog a (relatively) safe place for folks seeking escape from the trolls and tinpot despots that make up too much of life in this day and age. It’s why, these “daily prompt” posts aside, I mostly write about new albums and/or singles that have captured my ear.

On that last point: Nina Nesbitt’s heartfelt rendition of Dougie MacLean’s song for my ancestral homeland of Scotland, “Caledonia,” defines sublime; it captures the profound pangs many of us feel when thinking of a specific time and place.