An Ode to Ken Kesey's, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

As a giant nerd, my favorite part of this reading happened within the first paragraph of Chapter 5. It was the reference to the novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Paine paraphrases Ken Kesey in saying the inmates are now in charge of the asylum. This entertained and delighted me much more than anything else we have read for the class. The best part? The point being made is incredibly true.

Social media is ran and controlled by the individuals in charge of the platforms but is only as important and influential as the users make it. The companies could have the best campaigns, platforms and ideas but are only as popularized and needed as the users make them. Without users, social media platforms are useless.

As we all know, people are very much active on many social media sites. Paine writes of an interesting fact stating every minute a new blog is made. I am unsure whether this is a real statistic or dramatized exaggeration, but I would not be surprised if the number truly is that high.

Being able to “run the asylum,” the “inmates” have the ability to alter our world in almost every sense. Paine describes an event many users participated in. The author explains that during the 2005 election in Iran, there was an overwhelming controversy in which 200,000 tweets were made per hour on Twitter. These posts would have been seen by such a large audience and were held in their attention for a period of time that it would have become impossible for a user not to hear the opinion of at least one person. These posts would have had an impact on some readers and could even alter or strengthen one’s stance. By using Twitter as a means of expression, those posting to the platform had a direct influence on the topics users had an interaction with.

To believe users have no impact on the way social media is used and how it is used is incorrect. The only way the sites gain attention is by the users deciding whether or not they want to give away their attention. Without them, social media would be nonexistent but I believe because of our vapid narcissism and need to express opinions, social media will always take up a chunk of our time and space on our phones.