Digital Sandcastles and Precarity Online
How do we share and create content on social media knowing it might all be erased someday?
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Posting about current events on social media is a fast and easy way to gain visibility for these events. However, because of the quickness with which we all post, fact-checking becomes non-existent. This has been an ever-increasing issue in social media spaces. As a librarian, I am committed to ending dis/mis-information (even if I also sometimes get swept up in it).
Though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they are different. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information. Disinformation is false information that is deliberately intended to mislead. There is an intentionality with disinformation that is specifically egregious.
As I have been consistently reading and reposting things to my Instagram stories about the genocide of Palestinians, I have seen so much misinformation, and it leads me to wonder how helpful is social media to our collective movements?
I came across the term “Digital Sandcastles” last week when I was reading
by Tasha Darcey Grey. I looked the term of up and found it has been used for quite some time. I couldn’t find any one person to credit the term with, but if any of my readers know, please tell me.The idea of “Digital Sandcastles” (at least, how I aim to use it) is about how precarious our online landscapes are, specifically our social media spaces. Many of us have spent time, effort, energy, blood, sweat, and tears crafting our online worlds. This is obviously near and dear to me since I created Guerrilla Feminism on Facebook in 2011 and then on Instagram in 2013.
The issue with digital sandcastles is that they were never meant to last forever. They were never meant to be used as “archives.” [Side note: people really love using that term when they don’t know what it means!] They have no permanent infrastructure. Besides the impermanence and precarity, these spaces repeatedly hide anything that the company doesn’t want to show its users. Currently, we are seeing this with how Meta is purposely suppressing any sort of “pro” Palestine post.
I have a lot of questions (and not many well-formed answers) related to the future of posting through horrific times. Questions I’m thinking about:
How can we ensure that voices from marginalized communities or those posting about issues that affect marginalized communities, will be listened to and seen?
Where should we be archiving digital resistance efforts?
How should we be communicating these things with others committed to the same causes as us?
Are there other digital spaces or structures that we could collectively inhabit that have less precarity?
Are there ways to circumvent suppressive digital tactics? If so, how can we share out about this?
Posting through a genocide feels incredibly bleak and dystopian, and yet, what else can we do in the current moment? Organizing and attending in-person protests is great, but what about for those who are homebound or have other disabilities that inhibit them from attending these protests? Clearly, a digital component is needed and necessary. I have personally learned so much from Palestinians who have been able to record video and take pictures of what is happening on the ground in Gaza. All I feel I can do (aside from give money and attend local protests) is to repost all of the injustices I see from the people living through them.
Digital sandcastles, like a regular sandcastle, will always eventually get washed away and destroyed.
There is so much more to write on this topic, and perhaps I’ll write a longer piece on this at some point. I just wanted to share the beginnings of some thoughts I’ve been having on the matter. Please feel free to let me know what you’re thinking about all of this, too.
🫀 Mood Board for the Week
A Textbook Case of Genocide - Raz Segel
Excellent statement, reading list, and action items from Lux Magazine
There is Nothing Magical About Forgiveness -
I’m offering my first ever online class! It’s called Digital Violence & The Nervous System. It’s on Oct. 29 for 2 hours, $35 (sliding scale), and you will receive a recording even if you can’t show up live! Also, Black, Indigenous and other POC get in free! Read more about it and sign up here!