Muting others on social media normalizes deleting people from life

Evidence

It’s been years since I blocked anyone on Twitter, but I mute pretty freely—as soon as I see a bad-faith attack, or notice someone whose posts are reliably putting me in a foul mood, I click “mute.” It’s satisfying and feels a little like self-determination on platforms where everything else is determined by others. But I am also unsettled by the ease with which we can turn off other humans. I fear that there is something habit-forming about making other people disappear with a keystroke. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 348

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘never surface’ hazard of cancel-culture debates and to social media design critique; echoes the platform-algorithm literature. — connects to: Social media users cyclically withdraw from platforms to reduce anxiety and drama — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 634