Like a lot of people, I have an account on a certain social media platform that is rarely used. It’s got tons of suspicious ads, hours of idiotic reels, and intensely invasive corporate behavior intent on getting as much info about you as possible. Unfortunately, it’s the only way I can regularly keep up with lots of people I know who post their doings regularly on that platform. It’s the social media platform that I’d love to quit, but really can’t do without.
Perhaps it seems that I’m on a rant, or poised to deliver a lecture behind a lectern, but there is something really disturbing about the ads for products you never knew you needed. This morning there were dozens of ads purporting to clean your data off servers and websites that got there through skullduggerous means. Personal saunas and supplements you need but never heard of. All of them delivered with a sort of passionate true-believer gusto that reminds me of the old-time carnival barkers. Then there are the suspicious invites to friend people with sketchy backgrounds that you normally wouldn’t even pass the time of day with.
As a matter of fact, the analogy of the old-time carnival sideshow works really well. Carnies are selling suspicious goods, fixed games of “chance”, and mysterious doings in a tent…the only thing missing is the barker on a platform beside the tent – “Step right up, step right up! They walk, they talk, they crawl on their bellies like reptiles…Just one thin dime, just one tenth of a dollar! Step right up!
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