Retirement Protests
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Social media reached a new low today when mass murder in New Zealand was live-streamed to Facebook and then copied and shared around the world. It's hard enough to know the best means to express one's disgust at the appalling crime itself, let alone how to protest at the abhorrent use of social networking.
I am part of a generation that is potentially going to rely on the internet in retirement, yet every day we learn more about its misuse and please don't invite me to start slamming those ridiculous scams that are emailed into my inbox. With my mental faculties intact, I know not to click but will I always be so savvy?
The worldwide web has completely changed how businesses and individuals commmunicate as well as how societies across the globe now operate. Recently, however, Tim Berners-Lee, its creator, has even conceded his own discomfort at seeing it hijacked from serving humanity to becoming a structure monopolised by technology giants. We willingly deliver up to those controllers our personal data and photographs of our children, receiving in return a diet of never ending fake news and our surrender to subliminal manipulation.
Reading the comments beneath any well-written opinion piece in an online newspaper I am invariably disturbed by the level of vitriol and abuse displayed for all to read. Extremist views are posted and repeated as a badge of pride across any number of networking sites. I used to think all those cat and dog pictures were something of a yawn but please, somebody, bring them back in place of the misspelled hatred and bile that now spews out of social media platforms.
Fanatical and populist ideology posted by dubious sources and shared across newsfeeds worldwide has become so mainstream that people I might previously have considered to be critical thinkers now seem to repeat and repost without any obvious moral compass. They fail to hear or seek to comprehend that there is a valid argument against the stance that they promulgate. Where has reasoned and reasonable debate gone? I can offer an answer for that one: it has been buried in the adoption of subconscious Orwellian mantras like "the will of the people," "strong and stable," "no deal is better than a bad deal," or "make America great again."
Social media has enabled the proliferation of totally idiotic premises and falsehoods whilst generating support for irrational and illogical political posturing. One need look no further than the current Brexit impasse or the leader of the free world's Twitter feed for evidence.
Massacre in two mosques in Christchurch is proof of the existence of unjustified and criminal hatred. We all see it and mourn together when the terror of extremism is manifested in such an horrific way.
Online, however, we are becoming inured. We are enraged by the extremist with the gun and Go-Pro camera on his head, fufilling our expectation of how a fanatic behaves but we ignore, at our peril, the creeping acceptance of dangerous dogma on the Internet.
People sometimes tell me that in retirement they would like more purpose in their lives but they don't always have the time or flexibility to commit to a voluntary cause. I would like to propose, therefore, that if we are the generation that seeks to rely on the internet in retirement whether for social or practical purposes then we are the ones who should also seek to reclaim and defend it. There is no point muttering under our breath and then continuing regardless. Tweeting others as we may want to be tweeted ourselves and leading by example, although laudable, is sadly not the solution. We have to be prepared to call out infringement and take appropriate action.
I know protesting seemed simpler when you could turn up at Greenham Common with a tent and wire-clippers but how many of us have actually chained ourselves to railings recently? Planet Retirement is the perfect battleground to take the fight to the doors of commercial interests and large corporations. Boycotting remains a powerful tool as does complaining, giving bad (but honest) publicity and lobbying your MP.
Today I have absented myself from my Facebook account whilst contemplating its deletion. With over two billion active users monthly, imagine if only half its users did likewise. Ten percent of its current subscribers are apparently over 65; the deletion of two hundred million accounts isn't going to happen, but it would be some protest if it did!
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