5 Lessons from Alex Holmes

This week, I welcomed the incredible Alex Holmes onto the podcast.

Amongst so many other things, we discussed the power of young people today, the issue of online abuse and the work social platforms are putting in behind the scenes.

Of all the pieces of insight he shared, these 5 are my favourite!

Click with compassion:

That means being kind to both yourself and others in the way we engage with social media.

It means following accounts that make us feel good and blocking and muting those that do the opposite.

It means thinking before we comment; asking ourselves if what we are about to say is kind or helpful to the person who is going to read it.

And it means considering what you are adding to conversations before pressing share on a post.

Not only will this ensure that we are protecting those on the other side of the screen, but also ourselves.

The algorithm doesn’t know how something is making us feel, it just knows that we are spending time looking at it. If you are clicking with compassion, your algorithm is going to be showing you things that make you feel good. If you are looking at things that make you feel sad, then your algorithm is going to prioritise that.

Young people’s voices need to be heard:

In the past, young people were very much seen and not heard. This generation is making sure that this is no longer the case.

Their voices are growing increasingly powerful, and though they are still missing from certain conversations, those that they are taking part in are so much better for it.

In workplaces and in society more broadly, they are pushing us to do better. They want more from their careers, challenging their employers to show them what good they are bringing to society and ensuring that they are adding their own unique value to situations.

As a result, we are creating a safer, more thoughtful and more inclusive world.

Whether we are realising it or not.

The online world is often an extension of the offline world:

People are far too quick to point the finger at social media when it comes to the question of what’s wrong with society. We need to be more critical and more analytical than that.

We need to be asking what is wrong with society more broadly as if you’re already feeling bad about yourself and your situation, then social media isn’t going to make you feel any better.

Our sleep, diet, friendships, education and far far more all contribute to the way we engage with social media and therefore how we feel as a result.

We need to account for that - checking in with ourselves and our situation before logging on.

There is a gap in the curriculum when it comes to learning our values:

This is something I am extremely passionate about, having not really gotten to grips with my values until starting my podcast.

We spend 11,000 hours of our lives at school, and for many, there is a lack of opportunity in this time to explore who you are and what your purpose is.

By giving children that chance to really get to grips with themselves and what they stand for, we enable them to really get to grips with their mental health and the choices they make in regards to who they mix with, what they work towards and knowing who they want to be. That can only be a good thing.

The solution to ending online abuse is not one size fits all:

Whilst the issue of online abuse is pressing, ending it is not as simple a task as we may think.

Alex works as an advisor for some of the biggest platforms out there, including Twitter, Twitch and TikTok, and highlighted some really interesting points as to what is holding them up behind the scenes.

• Artificial intelligence isn’t intelligent enough to pick up on the nuances of context and humour. Attempts to inform it in the past have been totally unsuccessful, meaning that users were experiencing hindered expression of safe topics.
• These platforms are serving populations of people bigger than entire countries. Every one of those users has a different experience with and understanding of social media and culture more broadly. A blanket approach does not allow for that.
• Calls for ID to be made a legal requirement do not account for the fact that many people simply do not have access to it, or would be made unsafe by having to give up their anonymity. It isn’t simply trolls who use it as a shield, but people from marginalised backgrounds and those with protected characteristics rely on it to give them a voice whilst also keeping them safe online. One of my favourite things about social media is that it enables you to create a space to be who you want to be and not necessarily who you are - we don’t want to risk threatening that.

I hope you found as much value in these insights as I did!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on subjects they raise.