I have been the admin of a growing Facebook group focused on Koh Phangan and its holistic “conscious community” for 2.5 years now. The learning has been quite impressive, a direct, experiential insight into modern social media and communication tools.
Obviously new media platforms are increasingly determinant in shaping our perception of reality and the way we interact with each other. They are very important to understand, if you want to have a more accurate perspective on what’s going on in our culture, economy, democracy and way of life.
I started the Facebook group Koh Phangan Conscious Community (For Real Edition) in great frustration. I was disappointed by the inauthentic and even apparently malicious narratives portrayed in an existing island group, whose mission, it seemed, was to support our alternative community, when it clearly did exactly the opposite.
A love for holistic medicine, yoga, New Age practices and the desire to connect with all the wonderful international people in this magical and rather futuristic microcosm, were the principal reasons why I decided to relocate to Koh Phangan. I am genuinely passionate about learning philosophy, spirituality, mysticism, embodied practices, yoga and I absolutely love the island and our fun and free-spirited tribe of cool people.
Seeing this creative niche, this rather sophisticated and developed environment of modern individuals, being portrayed in mockery, highlighting all that is allegedly negative, unsafe, even mad about our community, hurt my soul.
This very established local group regularly gives space and broadcasts the most inauthentic and cynical narratives. These are largely led and endorsed by an online mob of unknown Facebook profiles. People I never met on the island, with whom I even have no common Facebook friends.
A culture of belittling and denigrating, expressed in generalised negative blank statements about our community, are mixing with the ads for holistic therapy and gatherings, classes and events, island matters and practical requests.
It is obvious to me, and to many of my friends, that our holistic island activities create a strangely dissonant frame around the trolling and toxicity of the debate, the culture of fear-mongering and negativity.
All with the placid complacency of admins who do not moderate these noxious and soul crushing incursions and, actually, often cheer on the mockery and slander. Why? Is it incompetence on their side, or are they ideologically aligned with those that do not understand, let alone support, our ways of seeing the world, of experiencing life?
Why would anyone running a conscious community group allow so much toxicity and misplaced opposition to the community itself? That was a mystery that puzzled me.
Everything took a turn, and for the worse, during the recent pandemic. The island, and Thailand in general, were not very much affected for a whole year. Despite the international ban on travel and some mild restrictions, it felt as if this crisis played out in the news and in Europe/US first, before translating into our local reality.
Not so if you read that “conscious” group of course. Loud narratives of potential decimation of the island population, of scarcity of beds available in the local hospitals, of general terror culminated, later on, with a daily bulletin pinned at the top of the group reporting the numbers of deaths and infections across the country.
Any sort of alternative commentary or even mildly different version of reality was heavily censored. A minority of more psychologically vulnerable people on the island felt like self-quarantining and were literally terrorised by this continuous propaganda.
The actual reality of island life was amazing instead, in stark contrast with the terrorism of social media. We experienced a near utopia, with a small and always on the island group of people connecting at a much deeper level, forming long term friendships and being, more than ever, spiritually united.
Most people have had the experience of following a narrative on social media, one of those large posts that attract a myriad of comments and reactions. Many of us have also had a sour taste when commenting, adding an opinion or intervention that was rebuked, belittled or attacked. It can be a tough world, social media. And it is not a fair environment.
It is a highly processed and manipulated environment. This is the biggest learning I acquired by operating online in this island microcosm. But this reality is clearly applied everywhere on social media.
Billions of fake accounts are present on Facebook, with many of those apparently taken down every few months and more being created. What for, someone might ask.
Bots but also professionals who want to create a certain narrative can build a Troll Farm, an institutionalised group of internet trolls that seeks to interfere in political opinions and decision-making, to spread propaganda and attack critics.
Cambridge Analytica’s scandal surfaced through the mainstream media, but my informed guess is this sort of manipulations are rather widespread. When there is an agenda, commercial, political, cultural, to influence or change people’s perception of reality, we know how social media can be used to spin and deceive.
That is exactly why junk food manufacturers spend millions of dollars in creating ads and narratives, likes and shares around their products in “legacy” media and, increasingly, online.
Psychology is a rather developed science, since Edward Bernays’ times, and decoding how it is applied to our subconscious is a path to more personal freedom.
You can read about moral panics, Russian bots and much more here. Wartime style propaganda from the UK government was very effective at leveraging media strategies to convince people they had to lock down, social distance, wear masks etc. We now know how misplaced, wrong and armful, let alone tyrannical some of that enforced “advice” turned out to be.
It is reasonable to think that any commercial, political or cultural entity with a vested or expressed goal, might naturally use Troll Farms tactiques, bots and all it is in their expert and well financed ability to push their agenda, see here.
Translated into a small community or niche, some of these techniques are likely to work very well too.
If there is a will, and a certain amount of expertise, admins of a small but locally relevant Facebook group can coordinate or incentivise any number of supporters to implement certain narratives, blame and shame the opposition and create a culture of fear-mongering, attacks and negativity.
The algorithm bias for bickering and drama will help this pursuit and further cement the culture in the group, which will organically pull in some real, unaware people from the community itself to further validate the narrative.
This culture, once prevalent, will gradually encourage those that seemingly hate, disrespect or are critical of the community and discourage those who love and support it instead.
Do we get trolls, fake accounts and unwarranted negativity in the KPCC (FRE), the local group I manage in Koh Phangan? Oh yes, trolls and unknown Facebook profiles, manufacture and comment on negative and divisive posts. I have been studying this phenomenon directly for 2.5 years now.
I debate, delete and ban, as part of a heart centred effort to create an honest, authentic and loving space for us here, while allowing some constructive criticism and civil discourse.
Who are the people behind these negative or low brow posts, those with real and fake accounts trying to manipulate the image and PR of a lovely group of yogis and free spirits in a remote island in Thailand?
Bored nihilistic types, ideological opponents and, probably, just losers with too much time in their hands and not many friends or occupations. Unknown or less known members of the other group who do not like our values or way of living and think the same soul-crushing culture should be created in our group too. And clearly a few more people I am aware of but I shall not write about.
Will I be personally attacked, slandered, cancelled for my genuine and heart centred effort to promote our alternative community, in a seemingly more authoritarian and illiberal world? I hope not.
No matter what, I seek to have enough spiritual strength and fluency to sustain a debate, confront and gracefully grow through any experience destiny might have laid ahead for me.
I am an amateur on the mataverse, I respect other peoples’ opinions and I distinguish between what is an online persona, that is learning and exploring through a virtual challenge, and real life on the island.
As a truth seeker, a fundamental value for me on the path to self actualisation, I posses a general curiosity and thirst for learning, exploring, experiencing and going beyond appearance.
How I share my truth might vary, depending on the context and the audience I am talking to. This blog is a gift of love and an authentic effort to make sense of reality and confront myself in my personal growth.