We Have the Power

Books by Megan Marshall, Lindsay Jill Roth, Dan Wolken, and Peter Sagal ... feeling vibes.

Author

Brendan O'Meara
February 01, 2025

The name of this newsletter — Rage Against the Algorithm — is by design. If it wasn’t already apparent how insidious and slimy Big Social is, you need only look at the inauguration.

It further underscored what New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote:

“… Zuckerberg and like-minded tech moguls have direct material interests in cultivating Trump’s good favor by performing his brand of manhood. Meta, for instance, wants to undermine its competitors, suppress regulation and free itself from the threat of antitrust enforcement. Other tech billionaires want to leverage state power to secure their investments in artificial intelligence, ahead of a potential collapse in the value of A.I. stocks. If the bubble pops, they want Uncle Sam — and thus the American taxpayer — to be the one holding the bag. Their pose and presentation, then, are all obviously strategic.”

This newsletter is not a political newsletter. But since Bouie’s column was a riff on Big Tech and Zuck’s masculine (LOL!) posturing, what struck me was how if/when the bubble pops, we’ll be holding the bag.

Let’s remind ourselves of this: We do not need social media.

  • It is not electricity.

  • It is not shelter.

  • It is not clean water.

  • It is not affordable (lol) groceries.

  • It is not an automobile needed to commute to work.

It is an information extraction machine, a privacy eradicator, masquerading as a community hub. Every social media platform eventually molts its skin of community and reveals itself for what it really is. Follow me on Bluesky!

My dream would be the mass exodus of everyone, to delete our profiles all together, in a coordinated walk out. We have all the power, but they have hijacked our sense of reason. I get it. I’m on Instagram (though I just deleted my Threads account. I know. Where do I find the courage?). I have a book coming out and if I followed my instincts and deleted all my socials (which I might in a few months) my publisher might consider that a breach of contract. If I had 50,000 newsletter subs, I could get away with it. That’s the goal. But I have a little more than 49,000 to go to reach that, sooooooo… foward to a friend!

I’ll repeat: We have the power. Nothing is holding us in place. Social media is not a utility company. It is not a necessary evil: It is, by and large, just evil.

If we the people deleted at once and freed ourselves from them, they would crumble to nothing. No, we don’t need them; they need us, which is why they invite us in for free, lock the doors, and throw away the keys. We are the host; they are the parasite. And we freely give it to them. Without us, the entire “Metaverse” would be a hollowed-out shopping mall. It still can be. Despite loving my Silver City Galleria in Taunton, MA, I would so love to see the castles crumble.

Yes, it takes more effort and creativity and rigor to build a platform without these platforms. Yes, it’s inconvenient. Trust me. I know how hard it is. How frustrating it is to get any sense of traction. Social media creates the illusion of traction.

It is Oz.

We always had/have the power to click our heels and leave.

How great would it be to see them wilt and dissolve, snapped into oblivion like Thanos.

I can dream.

As you know, this newsletter starts here and goes up to 11.

The Books

  1. After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart by Megan Marshall. I enjoyed this collection of six essays and had a nice chat about it.

  2. Romances & Practicalities: A Love Story (Maybe Yours!) in 250 Questions Lindsay Jill Roth. NGL, throwing a bone to a publicist here, but I’m keeping an open mind.

  3. Cocomania: How Coco Gauff Won the US Open and Became America’s Next Great Tennis Superstar by Dan Wolken. This doesn’t quite strike the depth I crave from biography, but if you dig tennis you’ll probably dig it, too.

  4. The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal. This has been on my shelf for seven years. Glad I finally picked it up.

The Other Stuff

  1. In the spirit of simply blogging about stuff and shit I’m interested in in my little internet garden that is MY website, not the sharecrop of Big Tech, I’ve begun riffing on running a bit (short essays on long running). Here’s my running companion.

  2. We pulled off our first live podcast event. Here’s my riff on it.

  3. The movie Her is coming to fruition. I kind of see the appeal. In my loneliest days as a sports reporter, I took great joy in the “company” of the commentary on my collection of Simpsons DVDs.

  4. This mini-doc on throwing the football is about throwing the football … or is it? Or is it really about voice, individuality, drawing inspiration from the ideal but settling into the comfort of your own skin and style? … Or it could just be about throwing a fucking football.

  5. I wrote a thing for Writer’s Digest about whether or not you should have a dress code that reflects the content of your book. But, turns out, my publisher has no plans to send me anywhere, so I’ll be wearing my requisite Champion sweatpants.

  6. I appeared on the Pivotal Running YouTube channel for a little interview about Steve Prefontaine. It was good practice. I need to improve my messaging.

  7. Download the Bookshop.org app so you can read e-books that support local bookstores!

CNFin’ Happy Hour: How to Finish

It’s natural to jump from project to project but at some point we have to finish things. Let’s talk about it. Grab a tea or a libation. I think Google Meet allows for an hour for free.

Friday, February 21, 5:00 – 6:00pm PST

Maybe Patreon?

Seen a nice little uptick in Patreon enrollment. If you want to help financially support the podcast and possibly get some face-to-face time with me to talk through some shit, consider becoming a patron. You can join for free if you want to lurk, but to get perks, you gotta thrown down that plastic. https://www.patreon.com/cnfpod

ICYMI: January on CNF Pod

On Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, (Steve Prefontaine’s 74th birthday), I went to TrackTown Pizza to meet some of the Pre Classic folks. No vegan ‘za bruh, so I was a hungry boy, tortured by the smell of meat and cheese. Poor me.

I met Tom Jordan, the author of the first Prefontaine biography. He was nice, but I could tell I was interrupting him and that he didn’t really want to talk to me. In my defense, someone introduced me to him so it wasn’t as if I barnstormed the guy. I thanked him for the work he did because biographers stand on the shoulders of those who came before. I also commended him on the job he did at the time he did it: 1978. There was no White Pages, Fast People Search, newspapers.com or, you know, the internet.

You can always tell when someone is like, move along now, move along. So after two minutes I was like, well, I can tell I best GTF outta here. It felt like a loooooong two minutes. Maybe it was three. Either way … I’m good at sensing a vibe and that vibe was, be gone, son.

I also met in person one of my key sources for the book, and her two children. It was nice, but also stressful. The children didn’t ever return my phone calls. I understand not everyone wants to talk with a journalist. They grilled me quite a bit as they’re understandably protective of Steve. I left really liking them, but also uneasy, because they might take issue with some things. Anyway, it was a stressful afternoon for an introverted “enemy of the people.”

Stay cool till March,

Brendan

PS:

Lachlan got a bath this week, so here he is in his bathrobe … since there was no bathrobe photo of Lachlan last month.