Stop blaming social media for

everything "wrong with society". 

Yesterday I wanted to tell one of our politicians this - and not for the first time. The politician in question was trying to place the blame for the attack on another politician on "social media". They were trying to suggest - not for the first time - that this is why we need their "Information-disinformation Bill" to be passed. 

No, we do not need that bill passed. It is not going to do anything but more harm. Social media is not to blame. People are to blame.

Let me put something to you if you are silly enough to read this blog. Imagine there is a poison which, taken in very small doses, actually does good. It is intended to stop you from feeling lonely and depressed and overweight and old and just about anything you can imagine. It is a miracle pill. The doctor prescribes it for you in the form of tiny pills. You are to take one pill each day along with the usual advice about diet and exercise. You start out taking the pill. It feels good but you don't like the diet or the exercise so you ask other people who are taking the pills. They tell you they take more than the recommended dose. It is making them feel so good. So you decide to take more pills as well but you do it without keeping to the diet or the exercise. Yes, you end up poisoning yourself. The doctor takes the pills away and you return to feeling the way you felt before you were taking the smallest dose. The poison is blamed and there are calls to withdraw it completely from the market. 

But wait! There is an antidote. It is a very, very expensive antidote and it won't actually reduce the harm that much but it is available - for a few and at a high cost to all. 

It seems to me social media is a bit like that. It is not the poison itself which is causing harm. It is actually good. It has many benefits. The problem is that some people misuse it and even abuse it. There are claims it is addictive and much more.  It has been legal...until now. The first move was to try and take the under sixteens off social media. They were told "no" and "go and play with a ball instead". 

But it does not work like that. Not everyone wants to play with a ball. Not everyone can play with a ball. 

We see our politicians using social media and the media. They behave in the same ways they are telling us not to behave. They try to tell us that it is somehow "different" for them. If we try to suggest they are addicted to publicity they are simply "doing what is expected" of them. They want access to ever larger doses of the poison and for no antidote to be available among the rest of us.  I am not sure it works like that but the government still wants to try.