Once upon a time, the public square was a physical place messy, democratic, and undeniably human. Today, it lives online, in the hands of corporations whose algorithms shape our politics, our identities, and even our emotions. Social media has redefined community, but not without cost: what we’ve gained in connectivity, we may be losing in autonomy.
Empowerment With Strings Attached
Let’s be clear: social media has done remarkable things. It has given a microphone to the voiceless, fueled global protests, and allowed movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter to shake entire governments. Activists who once struggled to be heard now have global audiences. That’s real power.
But there’s a catch: that power is never truly in our hands. It’s rented. Algorithms, moderators, and opaque “community standards” can make your message trend or bury it instantly. What you see online is not a reflection of reality,it’s a reflection of what the platform wants you to see.
Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, warned: “Social media is not about connection. It is about surveillance. Connection is the means; surveillance is the end.”
That’s not freedom. That’s control wrapped in hashtags.
Free Speech? Think Again
Social media sells itself as the ultimate free-speech arena. But let’s not kid ourselves. Your posts live and die by rules you didn’t write, policies you never voted on, and algorithms you’ll never understand.
Content doesn’t rise because it’s true, or fair, or important. It rises because it’s profitable. Outrage gets more clicks than nuance. Conspiracies spread faster than corrections. Hatred lingers longer than empathy. And so, the platforms push what keeps us angry, divided, and glued to our screens.
If you think you’re freely speaking your mind, think again. You’re performing inside a system designed to monetize your voice.
Even Twitter co-founder Evan Williams admitted: “The Internet is broken. And it’s breaking democracy.”
Outrage Is the Business Model
Look around. Why does it feel like everyone is constantly fighting online? Because platforms want us fighting. Outrage is sticky. It keeps you scrolling, arguing, refreshing. Every angry comment, every late-night doomscroll, is money in the platform’s pocket.
This is why “fake news” thrives. Not because platforms want lies, but because lies,especially shocking, infuriating ones, keep us hooked longer than boring facts ever could. Truth may matter to democracy, but outrage matters to Silicon Valley’s bottom line.
Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist, explained it best: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. And the product is keeping you outraged and addicted.”
And that’s the brutal truth: we are not citizens in these digital squares. We are products. Our attention is the currency, and corporations are cashing in.
The Loneliness of a Crowded Feed
Here’s the cruelest irony: in a world more “connected” than ever, people feel lonelier than ever.
Social media sells us the illusion of community, but what it really gives us is performance. We don’t gather,we compete. We don’t share,we broadcast. We scroll through curated lives, comparing our messy realities to other people’s highlight reels, and wonder why we feel inadequate.
Likes are not love. Followers are not friends. And no matter how much we scroll, the hunger for real connection never goes away.
As former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said: “We are the most connected society in history, and yet an epidemic of loneliness is gripping us.”
Who Really Owns the Digital Square?
Let’s stop pretending these platforms are neutral. They are not public spaces; they are private empires. Their goal isn’t to connect us,it’s to own us. Every keystroke, every hesitation, every video watched halfway is tracked, analyzed, and sold to the highest bidder.
The square is no longer ours. It’s theirs.
And the consequences go far beyond advertising. The same systems that sell you sneakers also influence elections, polarize societies, and spread dangerous propaganda. Democracy is paying the price while shareholders cash in.
Computer scientist Jaron Lanier warned: “We cannot have a society in which if two people wish to communicate, the only way it can happen is if it’s financed by a third person who wishes to manipulate them.”
The Bottom Line
Social media is not a harmless tool. It’s not “just entertainment.” It is the new public square, and right now, it belongs to those who profit from division, exploitation, and control.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way. We can demand change, reclaim our spaces, and use these tools on our terms,not theirs.
The question is urgent and personal: are you shaping social media, or is it shaping you?
If you don’t know the answer, chances are, you’re already on the losing side.
Because if we don’t reclaim the digital square now, we won’t just lose control of our feeds,we’ll lose control of our future.