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Social Media & Technology Impact Statement

Why we wrote a Social Media & Technology Impact Statement

This Social Media and Technology Impact Statement explains why Sirenella Press, as a small business brand and organization, is stepping back from most major platforms—not out of resistance to technology, but out of care for our creative integrity, community well-being, and the protection of original work. It outlines our intention to engage more thoughtfully and more on our terms rather than trends or industry “best practices.”

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Introduction

We here at Sirenella Press have various and growing concerns about today’s technological and social media landscapes; in large part, our concerns include the following:

  • Creator exploitation through idea theft and copyright abuse
  • Unauthorized AI scraping and data training from public feeds
  • Platform-enabled surveillance and techno-authoritarianism
  • A refusal to continue enabling systems of digital extractivism

Long gone are the days where partaking on social media was innocently about growing connections, establishing personal brands, and being part of vibrant online communities. It’s not to say these activities don’t still occur; of course they do — but the overarching contexts and frameworks underpinning these everyday activities have dramatically changed, and arguably NOT for the better.

Compounding matters at great scale is the rapidly expanding presence of AI; the companies building out today’s AI view technology ethics as something “in the way of innovation;” an impediment or nuisance of sorts to bypass. Moreover, the same companies have adopted a similar, lackadaisical attitude towards copyright and intellectual property. To them, if your content or artwork is publicly online, then it’s fair game for training their proprietary AI models, with or without your consent … and certainly 100% without any compensation.

Last but *hardly* least is the pervasive, mass-surveillance ecosystem (being paired with social media platforms and AI) to build a techno-authoritarian state of sorts; one where online privacy protections of any kind become an ancient relic and infiltration of our digital spaces for power and control are well underway.

My name is Mayra Yadir and as founder of Sirenella Press, I am not only an author-artist but I’m also a cyberpsychologist working on a doctoral dissertation for my PhD in Psychology with Media & Technology Contexts. These challenging cyber-digital subjects, as outlined above, are of high concern to me on so many levels; too many levels to deep-dive into here for the sake of keeping this statement as organized and as clear as possible.

In any case, as it relates to Sirenella Press and our creative community, the above-shared concerns greatly influence the need and reason for this Statement and by sharing our intentions forward, we believe we’re helping our growing base of readers and supporters better understand why we do, or don’t do, certain things online like other brands might.

But more about those details below.

For the moment, I hope this context is helpful and allows you to grasp the magnanimity of the moment at hand; at least in terms of how we see not only social media and digital spaces but also how we’re responding to said challenges.

A final but important note as I conclude my introduction is this:

Digital spaces and social platforms are in constant motion and our political climate, at present, is in a massive state of flux and tension.

Therefore, this Statement will also be in just as much motion; it will not be a static manifesto but a living, breathing ethos that we’ll continue shifting and shaping as the tech ecosystems around us keep evolving at rapid pace.

I hope that by reading this Statement, you’ll grasp a better understanding as to not only who we are but also WHY we celebrate analog creations and offline creativity as much as we do.

This is not to say, of course, that we don’t absolutely love digital because *nothing* could be further from the truth; we’re all about creating beautiful digital designs, templates, ebooks, and more; but analog spaces aren’t struggling or as mired as digital ones, in terms of the critical contexts and ethical challenges like those outlined here.

Thank you for reading and for being part of our growing community,

Mayra Yadir, PhD(c), MA, MFA
Founder, Sirenella Press

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We’re not leaving the digital world BUT we *are* redrawing our map.

At Sirenella Press, we embrace technology.

We always have.

We believe in the original promise of social media, which was always about the 3 Cs:

  • connection,
  • creativity,
  • and community.

But what began as a nourishing commons has curdled into something else:

An extraction zone.
A surveillance system.
A marketplace for stolen ideas.

So we’ve been rethinking where—and how—we show up online and, as of 2025, this is how we see our realignment of boundaries in the age of unchecked platforms:

✦ 1. We’re Still Social—Just Not Everywhere
We’ll remain active on a select few channels that feel aligned with our values. But most of our creative energy will be focused on a limited collection of platforms.

✦ 2. We’re Not Anti-Tech. We’re Anti-Exploitation
We love digital tools, digital products, digital art, and more. What we don’t love is how social platforms now serve tech oligarchs instead of their users. Their policies favor manipulation, extraction, and surveillance—not community well-being or creative safety. We object to these realities and not the tech itself.

✦ 3. We Protect What We Create

  • Our words, art, and ideas are not training data, which is why we’re careful about the images and content we post online; our care in this regard is not only about the nature of what we post but also the volume of what we publicly upload (or won’t publicly upload) as well.
  • While we know we can’t prevent piracy or scraping entirely—we know that we can make it much harder. Going more analog with some of our publishing processes and creative outcomes helps mitigate some of the piracy or scraping, to a degree.
  • We can be less visible to those who take without asking; going a bit more analog, again, allows us to reclaim our creative boundaries.

✦ 4. No to Metrics. Yes to Meaning
We’re not chasing reach and we understand “engagement” is both a monetized metric and manipulated outcome. Instead, we’re far more interested on cultivating resonance and developing enriching experiences through our art and creative writings.

Where You’ll Find Us
✉️ Newsletters, slow and intentional
🌐 Our Website, our digital home base
📦 Books, Mail, and Print, tactile and timeless
📍 In-Person & Pop-Up Events, when and where we can

In summary

  • We’re tapering our social platforms and being more selective about our online footprint
  • We’re *so* pro-human and very much post-algorithm
  • We’ll still be on social but just not mindlessly plastered on all the usual platforms as other brands might be