We asked author Patrick Edwards to cast his eye over ‘the state of things’ at the moment. Here’s what he sent us!
It raises interesting points…
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Antisocial Media? Just that title will have some groaning. “Give it up, old man, stop moaning about how ‘people used to talk to each other!’ and ‘Whatever happened to real books’?’
Firstly, I’m only 38. Secondly, my relationship with social media is an engaged one, and like all good relationships it’s had its ups and downs.
The Arab Spring was when I first started to think of personal online mass communication as a real boon to society. I’d had a Myspace page (now purged, thank goodness) and I’d used Facebook for ‘mates stuff’, but it was all a bit of fun. Suddenly, I saw an entire cultural bloc rise up and throw off its autocratic shackles – Libya, Tunisia, Egypt. Gaddafi; incredulous then bellicose then… just gone. People were using unrestricted digital comms to organise themselves, spread the word, support one another while the hammer of tyranny tried in vain to smash them. I’m fully aware it didn’t turn out to be all roses: fundamentalism and factionalism flourished without the pruning that had kept them at bay and after the initial elation things descended into what, in political circles, is called ‘clusterf*ckery’. To my idealistic young mind though, virtual democracy had awakened.
The knock-on effect was Ruin’s Wake, my first novel, which had the notion of unrestricted communication as a boon – no, a salvation – as its central premise.
Jog on a few years and… 2016. Empathy and broad sense seemed to fold in on itself. I sat up late both for the US election and then the EU referendum, feeling a slow and existential horror creep up my spine. Social media, which I’d been so powerfully drawn to, had soured; first into the playground of the insincere, the vain and the needy and now it had gone full Darkest Timeline, providing a platform for populists to sell their disinformation. There seemed no escape from it – the news and opinions were constant and jarring, legions screaming into the void. Instead of measured debate there was just a lot of shouting of kneejerk opinions without regard to civility. This wonderful tool that was meant to remove barriers built stronger ones until no one cared about what the other side had to say. One day, without fanfare, I just stopped looking at social media; the world went on, I knew what I needed to know and I felt like a weight had dropped from me.
Which brings me to now. The reality is that social media is a powerful platform for spreading the word about your books so I have to use it, if reluctantly. But in the middle of this pandemic that’s gripping us I’ve noticed something very odd creeping back in: people are… being nice to each other. Promoting each other’s products and interests, sending messages of un-dramatic and heartfelt support, offering help. Instead of driving panic people are talking about being calm and staying safe. This is the kind of thing that fired my blood at the start: altruism and empathy at work on a massive scale. Perhaps it’s just the gravity of this world-changing event our species is going through but is it possible people have re-discovered their online kindness? The battered but stalwart optimist in me thinks there’s a chance.
Thanks to Edward and all at Titan Books. The views given are, of course, his own.
Edward’s latest book, Echo Cycle, is out now in paperback. It’s described by the publisher as “a Near-Future Dystopian Thriller, featuring Timeslips and Ancient Magic.”
