Connection and Conversation, Rhetorically Speaking

I spent part of my week exploring old and new social media frontiers. Reflecting on the rhetorical methods I did and did not immediately find in play on X and Facebook's home pages, I wanted more information. What happened to the charged news feed of Facebook yore, with its notoriously contentious comment section? Is there more rhetoric to X than conversations between users? 

A quick search revealed that Meta had completely done away with the Facebook News tab as of April 2024, noting that "the number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the U.S. has dropped by over 80%" in 2023. In an official statement from their website earlier this year, Meta also claimed that they are committed to "combat(ting) the spread of viral misinformation" by working closely with certified, non-partisan fact-checkers. Appealing to its news-weary worldwide network of users, Facebook's rhetoric has come full circle: its aim is purely to connect. I find it incredible that users of the site, including myself, have come to depend on that connection so much that a degree of cognitive dissonance is required to look past the site's past betrayals of its users and their personal data. Facebook wants us to get cozy again and feel at home sharing our lives on its platform, and many have. As for me, I've taken a step back from sharing, but I haven't walked away from the site because it is good at what it does, and I hope that Meta keeps its promises to consumers.

A closer look at X affirmed my opinion that if you can see past the talking heads, the site is what you make it. Its rhetoric can be whatever we, as users and creators, bring to the table, and however that is spun or memed, followed or reposted is X's culture, conversation and even its charm. My resistance to using the site is still tempered by the ever-present cynicism that decades of online interactions informs, but Dark Mode is only truly scary when it's because our heads are in the sand.

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