When Voyage Comics was launched in 2018, all we had was a blog and a few social media accounts. We began with a small group of supporters, largely drawn from our initial Kickstarter that attracted only 186 backers.
We were like many other entrepreneurs that fully embraced social media, posting as much as we could, hoping and praying that our content would become “viral.”
It never did.
We spent countless hours agonizing over the right “formula” for getting noticed on social media, hiring at least a dozen social media experts over the years.
Our belief was this, “Social media is the key to our success. If we succeed on social media, then we’ll be able to expand, create more comics and quit our day jobs.”
Instead of making it “big” on social media, we spent years anxiously waiting to see if anyone “liked” our content.
Nothing happened. We never made it “big” in the eyes of Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Social media didn’t deliver on its promise and it drained nearly all of our mental energy.
The Social Dilemma
I personally was perplexed by this phenomenon. Why wasn’t everyone “sharing” our content on social media? Why does social media seem to favor only angry people and sensational news?
Over the past two years I went on a “deep dive” to try and uncover why nobody seemed to care about our products on social media.
We wanted to add something “positive” to social media, sharing good, wholesome comics that inspire people to lead heroic lives.
What I ended up finding was that social media is not designed to share good things. It’s only goal is to keep you on its platform and the way it does that is by showing you things that will make you angry (or cry).
I stumbled upon the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma (as well as a few other books which I will link below) and was floored by what I saw.
While social media might have started as a place where you could stay connected to your family and friends, it quickly turned into a dumpster fire.
The architects at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter purposefully designed their algorithms to capture the attention of their users and to keep them on their platform as long as possible.
This has had drastic consequences to our mental health, leading to a staggering increase in suicides and widespread depression and anxiety across all age groups, especially teens.
The scary part is that this isn’t new information.
When The Wall Street Journal released “The Facebook Files,” they revealed how “Mr. Zuckerberg declared his aim was to strengthen bonds between users and improve their well-being by fostering interactions between friends and family. Within the company, the documents show, staffers warned the change was having the opposite effect. It was making Facebook, and those who used it, angrier. Mr. Zuckerberg resisted some fixes proposed by his team, the documents show, because he worried they would lead people to interact with Facebook less.”
Basically, Zuckerberg was worried about changing the algorithm, knowing full well that angry Facebook users meant higher engagement.
The Digital Colosseum
Initially I was under the belief that social media was the new “Areopagus.” A place where Christians could encounter the world and spread the good news of Jesus Christ, similar to how St. Paul encountered pagan philosophers at the Areopagus (see Acts 17).
However, it has turned into the “Digital Colosseum.”
Social media has turned into a colosseum, where we seek entertainment and look around to see if everyone else gives a “thumbs up” to our favorite influencer, letting them live for another day.
Not only that, the platform itself will often weigh-in, letting us know if someone we know is worthy of our time, or if they should be cancelled.
Nature-Deficit Disorder
Richard Louv coined the term, Nature-Deficit Disorder in 2005 with the publication of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.”
“As children’s connections to nature diminish and the social, psychological, and spiritual implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity, and attention deficit disorder….In Last Child in the Woods, Louv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists who recognize the threat and offer solutions. Louv shows us an alternative future, one in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply—and find the joy of family connectedness in the process.”
Unfortunately, social media is designed to keep us on screens as long as possible. The architects of social media knew exactly what they were doing with notifications and wanted to give our brains enough dopamine to keep us engaged. This has meant hours and hours of scrolling social media, leaving both children and adults with a type of “Nature-Deficit Disorder.” While it might seem silly to use such a phrase, its true.
I firmly believe that God did not design us to be starring at our screens 24/7.
We were meant to be experiencing the natural world around us. This is one of the reasons why we focus on real, tangible products.
We have tried as much as we can to promote screen-free time, especially for children.
It’s certainly not easy and as a father of five children, I know first-hand the struggle to keep kids off screens and in the “real” world.
Our decision to leave social media is certainly influenced by this desire to encourage others to put down their phones and see the grandeur of God’s creation.
Should everyone leave social media?
If you have read this whole article (few will do so), you might be asking yourself, “What about me?” “Does that mean that I have to leave social media?”
I cannot make that decision for you. It’s up to you and its something that I think you shouldn’t do lightly.
I highly recommend that you inform yourself about all the positives and negatives of social media (I provide an extensive reading list below).
God might be calling many of you to stay on social media, evangelizing the people in the “cave,” encouraging them to get out of the “Matrix” and into real life.
I don’t judge or blame anyone who stays on social media.
Personally, I think it has morphed into something that brings more negativity into the world and I do believe there are better options out there.
If you want an Aquinas argument against social media, check out Matt Fradd’s explanation behind why he left Twitter.
Where will I find Voyage?
Coming full circle, while we were never able to gain any traction on social media (mainly because we didn’t make anyone angry), we were able to grow our business during the last five years through organic growth.
Our company has relied heavily on our popular e-mail list (see our sign-up below), where customers are given previews of future titles and receive the most up-to-date company news.
We also have an extensive blog, with weekly articles, as well as a new podcast.
We are also frequently interviewed for various podcasts, as well as feature articles in nearly all of the major Catholic news sources (Catholic News Agency, Aleteia, EWTN Radio, etc.).
We’ve also begun to dabble into traditional advertising and old-fashioned events that are done in person.
At Voyage, we aren’t against technology, but we are against inhumane technology.
The key question for us was, “Does the end justify the means?”
While we might have the worthy intention of being a light on social media, we couldn’t reconcile that with the reality that we were using a platform that encourages and monetizes depression and anxiety.
We agree with Tristan Harris in The Social Dilemma when he said, “If something is a tool, it genuinely is just sitting there, waiting patiently [to be used]. If something is not a tool, it’s demanding things from you, it’s seducing you, it’s manipulating you. It wants things from you.”
Social media is no longer a bicycle waiting for you to use it. Instead, it’s always notifying you and constantly nagging you for its attention, nudging you day and night, wanting you to be always on it (preferably when you’re angry or extremely sad and depressed).
If social media ever changes, maybe we’ll try it out. But for now, we’re sailing off social media and using tools and technology that don’t compromise our beliefs.
Resources
- Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen-Time (Book)
- Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids – and How to Break the Trance (Book)
- Digital Madness: How Social Media Is Driving Our Mental Health Crisis–and How to Restore Our Sanity (Book)
- Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (Book)
- We are Humans, And We Need to Fight For Our Humanity | Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, Digital Madness | The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast, S3 E49 (Podcast)
- Quit social media | Dr. Cal Newport | TEDxTysons (Video)
Philip Kosloski
Philip Kosloski is the founder of Voyage Comics & Publishing and the writer and creator of the comic book series, Finnian and the Seven Mountains.