Hi friends, welcome to another month. There’s a lot afoot in this world that I’m looking forward to sharing with you in the news and happenings round-up next month.

This time, as promised, I’m sharing some longer form writing.

Where to start? As a very online activist of the 2010’s and early 2020’s, I’ve been grappling for a while with what exactly is it that Big Tech social media platforms are doing to our social justice movements. I couldn’t find a term for it, so I started calling it the “meta Capture.” I’ll define that concept further in an upcoming essay. For now, let’s start from the beginning. In the interest of getting off Big Tech I’m sharing an Instagram post from Jan 2025 which remains relevant and captures the critical leftist essence of this ‘critical leftist, holistic, and playful’ project.

Scroll to the bottom for a report-back from our recent Tech-Care session and a reminder about our last event for the year Looking through the Looking Glass: A Meta-Experience of Meta::: on November 15th.

[Originally posted on Instagram Jan 2025, with some edits.]

why leftists need to get offline

social media may radicalize our thinking, but it pacifies our collective actions.

and I would argue, truly radical ideas are structurally suppressed and distorted by the logics of this medium, so that what gains traction (/ views / likes) are the versions that most benefit neoliberal capitalism, or at best, pose the least risk.

how does this happen? it's baked into the logic. this technology operates with three goals:
1. to keep us using the platforms longer (to sell us to advertisers)
2. to collect as much data on us as possible while we are using the platforms (and to try even when we're not actively using the platforms)
3. to use 2 for the purpose of 1

narratives that sound radical but keep us invested in the same social media ecosystem are structurally more likely to be spread far and wide, because they line up with those three goals.

so we see the proliferation of:
- spreading awareness through liking and sharing (i.e. stay online)
- imperatives to continue 'witnessing' injustice (i.e. stay online)
- being told the best we can do is buy from impacted businesses and donate to frontline orgs (and yes we find those by staying online)
- petty conflicts that blow up and get us to monitor and surveil each other's language, follows, posting frequency, post/story content etc. (i.e. stay online)
- hopelessness, overwhelm, dissociation (i.e. stay online)

this is why we can raise all of the awareness, we can share and be exposed to all of the problems, but we are hardly ever exposed to the revolutionary solutions unless they are in the past (non-threatening) or lone wolf actions (exceptional).

this medium will show you the violence and destruction that makes you feel powerless (and keep scrolling), but not the strategy, the militant action, and the organized solutions that can do something about it.

if it successfully gets us offline and keeps us offline, we are less likely to encounter it online, because what we encounter online is weighted to favour what keeps us online. i’m calling this the ‘meta Catch-22’, after the most culpable corporation and the nature of the issue. (look out for more on this concept in future essays.)

as the platforms take over more spheres of our lives, and route more avenues of action through their own channels, even if we do manage to get offline and stay offline, we are often isolated and out of the loop. this is the ‘meta Capture’. (look out for more on this in future essays.)

many of us have lost touch with the technologies and tactics we used to organize and mobilize with each other before this era. and many of us are unaware of alternative tech we could be using now.

we are recommended liberal solutions of digital detoxes, much like your employer might give you a few vacation days so that you return more 'productive'. a digital detox changes nothing about the structure, and is usually an individual pursuit.

or we are told to curate our feeds, which is structurally a losing battle, and even this narrative is slowly being replaced by 'trusting the algorithms' or jokes about how well your fyp knows you, as user choice and consent become ever smaller features of UI design.

none of this is inevitable.

it is in our best interests to figure out how to get offline, how to tolerate being offline, how to communicate offline, how to reclaim our attention spans, memories, and develop our discursive skills offline, and understand the medium for what it is.

for leftists, this is not just in crisis situations when the state turns off internet access at mass protests (though yes, absolutely we need alternatives in those scenarios), this is also the rest of the time.

if we are to organize to win, and not just be corralled into swells of symbolic mobilization, we have to comprehensively understand social media platforms as tools of the state, and practice breaking free - together.

*note I am using ‘online’ as shorthand for the data-mining attention-harvesting capitalist technology that predominates the internet at this point in time. let’s talk about the alternatives. the fact that you are here, in 2026, proves that the resistance is building. let’s keep it going. <3

Report-back from Sep Tech-Care Session

Tech-Care sessions are back baby! It was great to see some new folks this time. Note: I realized a bit too late that Ticket Tailor, the (more ethical) ticketing platform I use doesn’t automatically send event reminders. If you reserved a spot and were expecting the reminder or calendar invite to which many of us have grown accustomed, umm whoops! Now that I know I’ll send out those reminders manually. Another reason to reserve your spot in advance next time and get those personalized reminders! Other than occasional event updates, I’m trying to limit this to a monthly newsletter and not add to the well-meaning detritus in your inbox. :)

Most folks worked on the Security Essentials checklist at activistchecklist.org. Snacks and good company made tedious work more enjoyable. We celebrated each other’s wins with gold stars and applause. Folks left feeling satisfied about making headway and reflected on the new things they learned about digital security and privacy. We had some good conversations about why prioritizing these steps is helpful even when you’re not an activist or part of a targeted or vulnerable population - because it’s likely that someone in your contacts list is. That person is kept safer by your own actions, as digital security is an interdependent endeavour (like all good things in life.)

Save the date for the next Tech-Care Session:

Jan 19, 2027

6-8pm

@ Creeds Coffee Bar, 450 Dupont St.

More info to come.

Looking Through the Looking Glass: A Meta-Experience of Meta::

I’m very excited for this next event, as the last one I hosted had one of the most powerful acupuncture circles I’ve experienced in my 15+ years of participating in or holding such circles. ! I remixed the “Four Core Elements” into a single evening, and had the privilege of guiding a small group of strangers in moving from an intellectual and verbal space into an increasingly more embodied and connected space, concluding with a half hour of stillness in a shared acupuncture circle. The shift in the field from beginning to end was so physically palpable to me that if I described it I’m worried it’ll come across too ‘woo’ for some. :) Good thing is, you don’t have to believe or not believe in these things to benefit from them. I know from doing critical digital literacy work that these topics are not fun or pleasant to think about, and that’s why most of us usually don’t. The invitation to embodiment through Chinese medicine and acupuncture left folks feeling lighter, more connected, and more hopeful than they came in. And that gives me hope for what’s possible when we integrate these skills and wisdom together in a playful and holistic way.

As far as I know, I’m the only one doing this kind of thing, so far.

All that said, I’m eager to see what happens this next time. :)

The structure will be the same but the content will be slightly different, so feel free to join even if you came last time.

Nov 15: Looking Through the Looking Glass: A Meta-Experience of Meta:::

4-7pm

3 Munro St, Unit 103, Toronto

for the doomscrollers, the lurkers, the influenced, and the influencers:

what does Meta know about us and what do we know about Meta?

how does Meta hook us? 

and what do we do about it?

small group session // an evening of embodiment:::

Get your tickets.

Until next time, see you offline,

-G

P.S. Want to work with me one on one?

I offer office hours for cybersecurity and privacy topics. No such thing as a ‘stupid’ question. Tech literacy is for everyone.

Book Office Hours.

I offer personalized acupuncture for a wide variety of physical and psycho-emotional conditions including screen dependence.

Learn more and book an acupuncture treatment.

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