Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重:
Sparrows and Camellia in Snow (c. 1831-33)

"The worms in our apples might keep us human…"

Social Media represents just another instance of us getting what we insisted upon but not what we’d expected. The chief difficulty with Social Media might lie in just those expectations, but then that diagnosis does not render either Social Media or human expectations exceptions to any rule, but rather exemplars of one immutable rule. We tend to expect in slim dimensions, suspending the understanding that everything simultaneously manifests in multiple dimensions. We usually clearly specify expectations on one or two of those many facets, leaving the bulk of them to manifest without specs, to essentially default to what usually happens. Then, what usually happens does happen. We routinely surprise ourselves with the shocking differences between what we asked for and what we received.

As near as I can determine, such outcomes have always been the case. It’s a testament to something tenacious, perhaps the human spirit, that we seem to continue believing that we might simply receive what we clearly ask for, rather than some mix of preferences and defaults. It’s also a testament to something that we continue to surprise ourselves with such results, for few instances have ever manifested much differently. Our heartfelt hopes for our future seem both necessary yet insufficient. We must, it seems, relearn how to cope with disappointment all over again to avoid simply choosing to become cynical when our future arrives as another surprise.

Worst case might be that we’d opt not to scheme for better, even though we should also know to properly prepare for some form of disaster whenever we do. We tend to recover, after some fashion, often leaving our dignity in question, and suddenly not feeling nearly as omniscient again. And again and again. For this might represent the truer human condition, that we aspire with blinders on, and must, yet we must also continue to aspire if we expect desire not to shrivel within us. We certainly should strive for better, undissuaded rather than jaded by our prior experiences. Aspiring lives in imagined futures and serves as an antidote for a disappointing present. That it, too, might mature into fresh disappointments has no business in its business, which deals exclusively in hopefulness rather than wary watchfulness.

Rarely in the course of human history has any greater opportunity appeared than the internet presented. It promised to rewrite history more than the Enlightenment, for it promised to bring connectivity, the universal necessity for humanity to ultimately thrive. It promised to bring down tyranny by facilitating the largest experiment in direct democracy ever imagined. It seemed conceivable that everyone could voice their opinion on any conceivable issue and thereby achieve consensus without contention. Few imagined a cacophony of contention emerging instead. We created the potential together, then crushed it together in sloppy, all-too-human execution. This outcome was missing from the excited anticipation. We imagined Heaven on Earth before recreating our same-old Earth again.

We will address the multitude of problems Social Media has injected into our freshly threatened civilization. We might even ultimately be better for the detour, though we’ll likely find no way to accurately account for the benefits. We will ratchet ourselves along on our disappointment again, just like we always have before. We might well get closer next time, and closer still, through many subsequent times after. We advance by circular iteration, hoping before failing again, flailing our way in the general direction of salvation, never directly. The worms in our apples might keep us human as they fuel fresh disappointments with opportunities embedded within.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Unscrolling, #PureSchmaltz