Content

Messy thoughts about exploitation

Children as Internet Content

I deleted two social media accounts this week — X and Facebook — but that’s not to say there’s any sign yet of social media taking up less room in my brain.

Monday at seven, I was on my first coffee when I saw a Threads post that said (paraphrasing here . . . ): Generation Alpha’s trauma will be about being used as online content by the very people who are raising them. The algorithm knew I’d perk up at that. I scrolled on, and read the first six words of a hundred more posts, but nothing stuck like that thought about children as internet content.

Post-coffee, my shower was one of those kinds that feel as if ideas are forcefully coming showerhead-to-brain. All the thoughts, all the lovely warm rushing thoughts! These thought-showers require perfect timing. Get out immediately to tap out the ideas with dripping fingers and you may cut off the narrative too soon. Stay in the shower too long and you’re left vulnerable to mundane thoughts like we need cat food, …