Day 022. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL

A Millennial's Digital Detox Diaries: Meta is an empire.

Oct 30, 2024

I started this series to pursue an inquiry; a quest to investigate my relationship with Instagram and how I can reclaim my headspace and autonomy against the algorithms.

The narrative that dominated my mind initially was based on fear and frustration, against the corporate overlords that I feel are exploiting us—our time and attention; depleting these precious unrenewable resources.

(Yes, perhaps on some level, social media is taking advantage of me.)

Yet, despite my wariness, Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has also inspired awe. It’s a company that’s built some of the most used tools, applications, and services that serve the largest proportion of humanity in history. That’s a feat worth admiring!

We are nearly at the end of this series!

I’ll continue this series until the end of October. Then I’ll be starting on a new adventure for this newsletter—something’s cooking. Stay tuned!

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Meta is not just a company; Meta is an empire.

Serving 3.96 billion people worldwide, Meta is greater than any historical empire of the past. Boasting a reach of 55% of the global population, its users span timezones and markets, with active users each hour of every day. That’s the kind of engagement and enthusiasm empires of the past could only dream of.

Meta acts like a company, but it’s better classified as a modern-day empire. Instagram and Meta are more akin to global institutions, boasting active membership greater than any single company, entity, or government combined. But, also of any other that has ever existed in human history.

While we may not have a single government ruling the earth, Meta’s dominance is the next best thing in terms of power, access, influence, and distribution. It surpasses any other global entity, with China—using its own versions of these platforms—being the only exception.

What is Mark’s mission?

What is the Zuckerberg vision? When I started this series, I thought I’d be exploring Instagram and its immediate influence on me and my immediate communities.

Now, nearing the end of this series, I realise my subjective exploration of my relationship with Instagram is much too narrow and simplistic of a view if I want to fully comprehend how to coexist with these God-like technologies.

Meta is a new-age institution.

Humanity has never encountered such a behemoth, led by a single person—Mark. It’s not about me or even about Instagram, the real question we all should consider is of Meta, what are its ambitions— and of what are Mark’s?

He is not an elected representative, but he has become the default leader steering a lot of humanity’s future, because of Meta’s network of connection and information with majority in the world.

With a unique oversight on the daily behaviours of each of its users, Meta also represents a very different structure to global order.

Meta’s reach is global, and its responsibilities naturally mirrors its dominance. Thus, the issues and complexities they’re tasked to handle are beyond what any single historical figure or institution was ever responsible for— and is likely under equipped to thoroughly handle.

It’s no longer about governments, neither is it about empires, but it’s about the technologies and technologists that rule our world that matter most. It’s about which entities control the data and who are the teams that will lead innovation that’ll own the keys to future inventions; that, I realise, is where true influence lies.

It’s way more than app addiction.

With his vision for connecting the world, his innovation is literally responsible for the fates of billions of people worldwide. It’s more than any single man should be responsible for, but it’s also what Mark and his colleagues at Meta are facing.

Mark Zuckerberg is arguably the most influential man in the world, more than any King, Queen, or head of state today or in history. Although he’s on the Forbes rich list, Mark Zuckerberg’s power goes way beyond material wealth.

If we peel back the curtains and consider what this man has a ring side seat to, he has access to a treasure trove of personal data. He is connected to more than half of the world’s population across nearly every nation on earth.

Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, are applications most of us engage with on a daily basis.

These are the platforms most of us millennials and younger grew up with. These are platforms we used to (or still do) share intimate details on. From which schools we went to, to the jobs we had, to the friends we had a drink with, to those we’ve unfriended or stayed friends with for decades.

They know the trips we went on, the people we’ve shared joyful memories with, and those we continue to engage with; along with the wealth and depth of other tidbits of information that we willingly volunteered over the years.

But what makes Meta really unique is not only its data, neither is its global dominance.

Meta’s magic is the emotional spark it’s able to ignite.

The likes, comments, follows, and engagements are dopamine machines, but they’re more than just metrics, they’re storage hubs of memories, libraries of conversations, and intimate windows into the everyday, real time interactions we share with loved ones, acquaintances, and strangers alike.

Meta has become the foundational social fabric to our modern way of life. It has infiltrated the majority of households across all ages, demographics, cultures, race, and social class.

Meta is not merely an app we use—it’s way more powerful than that—it’s an interconnected network; a digital ecosystem that perhaps is also a mirror to society today.

What if Instagram and social media are simply mirrors to humanity? What if the problem we see on social media is not a result of the platform, but more an exaggeration of human conditions? What if social media is simply a reflection of the imperfections we, as a collective, need to heal from and course correct? What if Meta is simply a magnifying glass of humanity’s state?

Today, I am in awe of what Mark Zuckerberg has built, but also overwhelmed by his responsibilities.

It’s not just about an app addiction or reclaiming my headspace. It’s not about merely preserving autonomy. It’s a sobering awakening of accepting the shift in global order, the transition of power and influence, and the becoming of an entirely new era of humanity—one in which technologists and artificial intelligence command the airwaves.

We collectively must consider our role in shaping not only our relationship with these applications, but also in how we want to help shape its future and our collective destiny.

What part do we each want to play in the struggle to create a more just, fair, and positive future for all?

I leave you with a quote from Mark’s 2017 letter (dubbed the Mark Manifesto):

“Overall, it is important that the governance of our community scales with the complexity and demands of its people. We are committed to always doing better, even if that involves building a worldwide voting system to give you more voice and control. Our hope is that this model provides examples of how collective decision-making may work in other aspects of the global community.
This is an important time in the development of our global community, and it’s a time when many of us around the world are reflecting on how we can have the most positive impact.”

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