A Love Spell for Social Media
Reclaiming, rekindling, reforming and returning.
Hello, friends. There are some changes happening with my social avatars, and I’d like to share what’s behind them. Perhaps you’ve noticed that I haven't been very present in the digital realms lately. As the landscape of social media has gone through its seismic pandemic shifts, its tumbling journey from a place of cats & connection, to a place of content and advertising, I’ve shrunk back from it.
Do you remember when social media was social networking? Back before the algorithms and the ads? Gosh, it was fun. Then began this transition, from my pages being places where I posted pictures of Donut Sundays, to them being online portfolios with capitalistic means (whether I liked it or not), a place where my donuts seemed at the least irrelevant and at worst problematic, an addition to a glut of fluff content sapping the attention of people who should be out eating donuts themselves. Not to demerit my donuts.
Here is a chart that DALL-E, OpenAI’s ai, made to represent the journey.
I struggled, virtually and IRL. I struggled with whether I wanted to add to this dangerous tidal wave of content. I struggled with whether my donuts belonged beside my latest documentary release. I struggled with whether I wanted you to know about my Sunday Donut habit, and whether I wanted to fight with you about it. Would donuts unite or divide? Would I be canceled for my proclivity for Boston Cream? As the world fell to pieces, I struggled to know if there was ever a time that my donut pics had any relevance, at all, in face of the infinitely more relevant. How can I post about donuts when the world is starving?
COVID hit and it hit me, precocious lady that I am, in spring of 2020. The swirling questions became a mute button. If you’ve had COVID, or long COVID, perhaps you know what it does to your energy. My personal geyser of it, pun intended, perpetually spilling life that had to be constantly directed; into ultra running, start-ups, kickstarters, activism, dance parties, dimension hopping, how the need to focus that energy once ruled my mother-foxing world! It once gushed and raged from me in a way that was destructive if not directed, and then, all of the sudden, it was gone. The geyser burbled, burped, and slowed, till all there was left was dampness and a gaping hole. The earth around it cracked. All energy, all life remaining filtered towards survival. Screens, with their high-contrast letters and eye-aching light, became black holes for my brain, to be avoided unless functionally necessary. And so, social media took a back seat.
At some level, I missed it. I missed your cat videos. I missed you poking fun at my moody poetry. I missed sharing my graffiti finds and favorite beer and stinky cheese pairings with an appreciative audience. But I also absolutely hated what it was doing to my mind, and what it was doing to yours. I read book after book about the attention economy, and watched as more and more of the smartest, most successful people I know, and many I don’t, were diagnosed with attention disorders. I felt social media sink its corrosive claws into my brain and I wanted no part in it. I didn’t want my data gathered. I didn’t want to fuel the advertising algorithms (though damn does Instagram know my shoe tastes). I didn’t want a binary avatar crafted for marketing means. I didn’t want the divisiveness, the deprograming of my ability to have real, back-and-forth conversation & debate. I didn’t want to be addicted.
By this time, 2020-something, I’d all but abandoned sharing my work on social media; I didn’t need to to get jobs. I’d also all but abandoned sharing myself on social media, it didn’t seem to fit in a place potential employers might gander. I’d become a voyeur, wandering the annals of Instagram for videos of skijoring corgis and cats in sinks. Occasionally, someone dear to me died, and I posted a eulogy. My feed began to look like a graveyard.
I was crafting a resignation email from all of social media when October 7th happened. And in the black embers of my Instagram, the phoenix rose. Despite its algorithms and censorship, its shadow bans and biases, social media quickly became my best and most reliable tool in tracking one of the most important and tragic events I have ever witnessed. It was immediately obvious that our traditional news sources were reporting with bias that crosses over into inaccuracy, and I knew that if I wanted a chance of knowing what was actually going on in Palestine/Israel, a place where for many reasons it is incredibly challenging to get fair reporting, I would need to go directly to the sources to supplement. Social media is a crucial resource during this event that many in power would rather we never see: the genocide of a nation helpless to protect itself, broadcast in real-time by those being killed. Of course, social media is not moderated for factualness, and its content must be challenged and assessed vigorously—a great exercise in critical thinking and research.
Today I turn to Instagram nearly every day to follow not only what is happening in Palestine, but also to see what misinformation is being spread about the conflict and by whom; to find and share information that is accurate and important; to find resources, actions, and how I can be of service today; and to check in on journalists I have become attached to. And yes, to balance it all out, I watch cat videos, too.
Something happened in this return to social media. I began to remember what I had once loved about it. Remember that it can be used not just to divide, but to connect. Not just to addict and control, but to liberate and empower. Is it flawed? Absolutely and deeply. But so is our mainstream media. So is our government. So are we! Abandoning these systems is to disengage from their reform and growth.
If I wasn’t going to abandon social media, I did need to reform my relationship with it. I needed to learn to love it again, and from that love, to craft a new intention, a love spell for my social media future. Here is that spell:
Firstly, I have started a personal account on Instagram, @AliGeiser. Friends and family can find me there to chat about pastries, politics, and what we’re doing on Tuesday evening. It’s a rough and dirty place for art sketches, mocktail recipes, iPhone pics of my bird feeder, memes and dad jokes, alongside the more serious business of sharing resources, well-vaunted information, and events. It’s not a private account - new friends are welcome, but do come to be friendly.
My Facebooks page and @TheGeiser on Instagram will become The Business. I’ll keep it mostly professional on here, with limited personal sharing. I’ll talk about my projects and my process. You’ll get the BTS and all that jazz. That means there will be some cleanup, and perhaps some catchup. There will be some crossover here in the form of sharing important resources, well-vaunted information, and events. My business is built on my values, which means that my advocacy for earth and its creatures will always have a place at The Geiser.
I’ve also started a Substack. . . ! If you’re reading this far, you’ve found it. Welcome.
Since I closed down my last blog, novapops.com, in a panic of online identity confusion and vulnerability, I’ve missed having a place where I could express myself in longer than 2200 characters. I’ve also struggled with the expectation that I should be publishing all this agreeable, clean, short content, frequently and with no compensation, while tech conglomerates get rich off my/our content. Fuck that. I am a storyteller; this is how I make my living. I am a verbose storyteller. A nasty storyteller. A wild and ridiculous and passionate storyteller. I have so many words for you baby, and they were crafted for your full and undivided attention, not just a 4-second scroll-by.
Substack is an opportunity for me to offer you my unbridled content, and an opportunity for you to support its creation. I call it “Love Spells,” and it’s just that. All the content and the full Love Spells experience is free, but if you value what it brings into your life, I invite you to donate on an ongoing or one-time basis, as much or as little as you desire (over $5). For more about Love Spells, check out my about page.
Back to where this all began. I want to be a better member of the social media community. I’ve mulled over what this means. For me, being a part of a community means bringing something to it. What is it that I have to offer, that this community needs?
One of my superpowers, which I have been educated in, authorized in, and exercising closing on 20 years professionally, is my ability to analyze information for factualness and value. At a time when misinformation is rampant on the internet, know that I am striving to share only what is, to the best of my professional knowledge, accurate. I want to be of service in this way, so please, tell me how I can do better, how I can help.
And how do I choose what I share? What is my core motivation? If you are going to pay mind to my social media posts, you should know. You should ask this of every information source that you turn to. You should ask it of the New York Times, of Sean King, of Linda Sarsour. You should ask it of NPR, President Biden, Donald Trump. Always look to the values that are behind that source.
Mine is simple, it is giant, it is in my blood, and it has shaped my life. Tikkun olam - the responsibility to, simple put, care for our world.
With love, hope & dreams of donuts,
Ali
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