WE’VE hit “peak digital” one headline screamed. Life’s beginning to suck for Zuckerberg. At long last, the Meta universe’s imperial forces are coming under serious attack. Faceboke, Twit-ter and Insta-sham are crumbling. Social meedja’s day of reckoning has finally arrived. We’re free!

The reason for such hysteria? The stock of Facebook’s owner Meta Platforms slumped by an incredible $230 billion last week as the web behemoth reported a fall in daily active users – the first time in its 18-year history. Even the saucer-eyed one’s personal wealth tumbled by nearly $31bn, the same as the GDP of Estonia.

Could this be the first hint that the growth of Jack’s internet Beanstalk has finally stopped? I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels a little sense of smugness about Zuckerberg’s “troubles”. For once his inexorable rise has hit a rocky patch. Nice to see him brought down a notch or two – now he only has $85bn left to play with. The internet really does bring out your worst traits.

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As a member of Generation X, I have a foot in both camps – not quite a digital native, but also not a knuckle-dragging Luddite. I grew up with dial-up phones, VHS cassettes, tapes that got stuck and clunky Atari ping-pong games. Technology existed, but it just wasn’t that sophisticated. If there was something good on telly, I’d have to wait a WHOLE WEEK to watch the next episode. I witnessed from distant sidelines the biggest change in social history since industrialisation, but unlike soothsayers like David Bowie, I wasn’t smart enough at the time to fully appreciate its significance.

So I have mixed feelings. Yes, it’s easy to slip into some sort of nostalgic fairy-tale of the good old days – browsing in records stores, reading proper books, people talking to one another rather than staring at their phones, and so on. But it wasn’t all that great – having to wait for your flatmate to get off the phone or waiting a WHOLE WEEK to watch the next episode of your favourite show.

But Facebook et al have turned our world upside down. The high-street stalwarts of our childhoods are no more. Our language, our social norms, our way of thinking and our mental health have all been affected. On the plus side, it offers instant news, convenience, free speech, unlimited reach and access. On the downside, it has amplified toxicity, with sometimes tragic results. It both holds the powerful to account while also offering them a useful tool for propaganda. It’s the age of echo chambers, rabbit holes, trolling, cancel culture and misinformation.

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The internet isn’t dead – not by a long shot. But maybe, just maybe, we are seeing a little – but not insignificant – shift. Facebook is cracking, Spotify clearly puts bucks before principle and the mind-crushing trash on streaming platforms has proved that quality, not quantity, does actually matter. People are buying vinyl records, CDs and printed products again.

My hope – idealistic, even naive, I freely admit – is that we will enter a new “post-virtual” world, where the shockwaves of the initial internet explosion start to smooth out. We are not nearly there yet, as society is still getting to grips with its impact, but maybe one day when the boom has dissipated we can pick up the pieces, learn the lessons and build something better, safer, kinder and more inclusive.

We’ll never turn back the clock, but life can find a new equilibrium where both “virtual” and “reality” co-exist in support rather than against one another. The alternative? Self-destruction.

 

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