False Prophets, Ostriches & Groupies – The Delusions of Social Media and its Messiahs

False Prophets, Ostriches & Groupies – The Delusions of Social Media and its Messiahs

Who are you “connected” to on LinkedIn? How many Facebook “friends” and “followers” do you have? We live in a world where we’ve been conditioned to measure our self-worth by how many digital connections and interactions we accumulate, by how many views and “likes” our posts receive. How do you stack up?

How many of your “connections” and “friends” have ever actually been there for you? Recommended you to others? Assisted you on your journey without asking anything of you in return? How many of them have you done likewise for? How many of them even know, or care, that you exist? And, if they don’t, why are you “connected” to or “friends” with them at all?!?

Many are content merely to be associated with those they perceive as having reached a certain level of greatness: perhaps, by a touch of His cloak, they’ll be healed. Self-proclaimed prophets and gurus regularly churn out new “content” for their adoring fans, followers and groupies. This fosters and perpetuates an inherent inequality, a “we / them” mentality, discriminating between messiahs and followers, superiority and inferiority, worthy and unworthy. In far too many instances, gurus and followers alike bury their heads in the sand, like the proverbial ostrich, to any who might oppose their views, to any who can bring them no immediate gain.

We live at a point in electronic history where events like TED and TEDx talks, approximately 50,000 talks designed to bring the best innovations in technology, education and design to the forefront, are currently available worldwide on YouTube, with over one billion views to date. And yet, are we really any better off because of it? What has happened to our humanity? According to a recent United Nations report on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston writes, “The United States is one of the world’s richest, most powerful and technologically innovative countries, but neither its wealth nor its power nor its technology is being harnessed to address the situation in which 40 million people continue to live in poverty.” (1)

In The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank says, “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” (2) This was certainly not the reality of the times during which young Anne wrote. It also was definitely not the reality of her final days as “neighbors” ultimately betrayed her family and led to her being sent to slaughter. And yet, perhaps, just maybe her sentiment, the sentiment of a young, naïve, horribly deluded teenager, has led to a kinder, gentler planet as people all over the world have been transformed by her world views; as people strive to live up to her innocent enough expectations.

In a world where everyone’s sole value has been seemingly reduced down to what they can provide someone with, seeing everyone as either a prospective customer, client, fan or follower, I find myself hoping with all of my being that young Anne Frank was right.

By jon m ketcham

Offering hope to the hopeless & helping the broken re-kindle their dreams

(1) Extreme poverty in America: read the UN special monitor’s report, Philp Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, The Guardian, December 15, 2017

(2) The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank