Social Media Ick

I’m older, but I still have an appreciation for the term “ick”. In writing this, I know that I’m likely contributing to the term’s death because the youths will probably move on as soon as someone like me uses it. However, I like how “ick” uses brevity and onomatopoeia to perfectly capture a visceral dislike for something.

Ick is how I feel when I first opened up SnapChat and TikTok. I’m aware that those apps weren’t really made for me, and that I’m likely beyond their demographic aim, but there was an immediate disgust with both platforms when I first installed them.

Let me show you my Snap Discover feed right now:

Snap is a $15B company, and what I’m being force fed without asking is buff guys, scantily clad women, celebrity gossip, and what I’m pretty sure is the last minute of fame for the girl who is famous for talking about spitting on men’s genitals prior to fellatio. And hockey. I’m not only not interested in any of these things; I go out of my way to avoid them. This feed presents like the magazine stand at a grocery checkout. It’s nothing I’d put time into or look at, and it’s not me.

I’m willing to bet that it’s not most people.

Sure, you might get pulled in by a bikini or some abs or a celebrity downfall, but I don’t think that’s why you’re on the app. Not only is it not who I am as a person, it makes me not want my kids to use it. Having to wade through trash or being trash adjacent isn’t something I want my kids or family to be forced into just to talk to me. I’m not a prude, and there is definitely a place for all of these things, but making them the first thing I see when I open that app only makes me distrust the platform because I know someone in a room somewhere made the decision to just skip educational or relevant content and just play into my most primordial of desires.

It wants my attention, and it’s willing to debase itself to get it. It will show me anything that it thinks my lizard brain will be drawn to so that I’ll dig deeper and keep my eyes on it. And while it’s showing me these purely click bait posts, it flashes me ads that I don’t want to see either.

I’d like to think that Instagram would be better, but this what I see when I press Search:

Again, this isn’t me. This isn’t what I want to see. I just want to search the site and search my friends and family for their posts. I don’t need to see women in bikinis, shock value medical images, or celebrity gossip. Like with Snap, I’m being fed these images so I’ll click on them. They tap into the most base of human desires and instincts, and they’re doing whatever they can to keep my attention and get me to click.

On the other side of the post, the people creating this content are being rewarded for their efforts. They’re click bait, sexy, monstrosities are shown an enormous audience that maybe, like me, doesn’t want to see them.

This just repulses me, and, in keeping with the post’s theme, it gives me the ick.

We deserve better.

We shouldn’t have to be surrounded by nor wade through garbage to connect with people.