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The Heart of the Problem - Social Media

Luckyone

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My son made me aware of this article this morning and upon reading it, it struck a cord of reality that was impossible to dismiss.

WHY THE PAST 10 YEARS OF AMERICAN LIFE HAVE BEEN UNIQUELY STUPID​


Within the article, there is one comment that sums it all up in a short phrase "Social media has both magnified and weaponized the frivolous"

The article is worth reading as it clearly shows how social media has split us apart, as far as having a Red America and a Blue America.

Here is an example of that:

Recent academic studies suggest that social media is indeed corrosive to trust in governments, news media, and people and institutions in general. A working paper that offers the most comprehensive review of the research, led by the social scientists Philipp Lorenz-Spreen and Lisa Oswald, concludes that “the large majority of reported associations between digital media use and trust appear to be detrimental for democracy.” The literature is complex—some studies show benefits, particularly in less developed democracies—but the review found that, on balance, social media amplifies political polarization; foments populism, especially right-wing populism; and is associated with the spread of misinformation. Finally, by giving everyone a dart gun, social media deputizes everyone to administer justice with no due process. Platforms like Twitter devolve into the Wild West, with no accountability for vigilantes.

Read the article and learn about one of the big problems that is presently happening to the world (not just our nation).

 
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Well, I agree to an extent. Social media has made our situation far, far worse, because there is no accountability for hatefulness, and people have the tendency to forget that there are real people on the other side of the screen.

That being said, all the hate and divisiveness started somewhere. I believe it all started with Rush Limbaugh. He was the first mainstream talk-radio personality, and while he was OK at first, he went nuts when Clinton get elected. He realized that hate sells. When others saw it working for Rush, they jumped in on the bandwagon.
 
The heart of the problem is people believing the shit they read on social media. There have always been crazy theories out there - remember the National Enquirer? Only the most fragile people believed the headlines. Now we have millions of people consuming National Enquirer adjacent content and taking it at face value.
 

The source(s) seem to have a noticeable left bias. The Atlantic’s ‘summary’ is behind a paywall. Should we be shocked that social media would *gasp* “foment populism”? Should we be shocked that “right-wing populism” has been judged (by Cornell University?) to be especially troubling?
 
Well, I have seen many a posts on here that people forget that~ maybe even you have forgotten?
 
Social media (for many) has become the public square. While it is easy to complain that it has become “the Wild West”, it is also hard to imagine that allowing a team of “experts” (either public or private) being allowed to control what is or is not misinformation or disinformation would be an improvement. While folks asserting that the Earth is flat, only religion X is based on the true ‘word of God’ or Hunter’s laptop is Russian propaganda hoax may be far from factual - allowing that content is preferable to disallowing (removing) it.
 
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I think I agree with the premise, but the genie is out of the bottle. The frivolous only becomes a weapon if we allow it to be.
 
China, Russia, Iran, etc. do not seem to have a problem with "social media."
 
Do you have to look at everything from a political point of view?

This article is not political. It is a study of what Social Media has done and there is no doubt that Social Media gives an orating platform to every kook, every idiot and every biased person to be heard.

That is a big problems because it makes all of us wary of the news media, of the government institutions, and of everyone in a power position. That, in an of itself, is a huge problem because even if any of those are doing something wrong, something political, something disruptive, at least in the past the country as a whole went along and if nothing else we worked together to get something accomplished. Things GOT DONE. Ultimately, enough good things got done that made us advance as a nation.

Now, nothing gets accomplished. We are being pulled apart in hundreds of directions and we never work as a team vs world. We work as a mole against "each other" and that means we go nowhere, it means we hate each other, it means problems occur that have NEVER occurred in the past.

Social media has in effect made us not a one nation but 3.3 billion individual nations
 
TheParser said:
China, Russia, Iran, etc. do not seem to have a problem with "social media."
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No, of course they wouldn't. They are autocracies that punish anyone that says anything different than the official view of the government. Then again, that means that others that do not go along (like Ukraine), are going to be exterminated. Is that a good thing?
 

Yes, like the electoral college, which I can guarantee the writer would just luv to abolish.


Good.


Typical leftist analogy of free speech and physical violence.


Right, because the free expression of ideas is comparable with criminal activity.
 
Holy crap, Right wing populism?

TERRIFYING!!!

What would happen to this country if we pulled our factories out of China?
And if we had a honest, unbiased news media?

I SHUDDER TO THINK!!! THE HORROR...THE HORROR!!!
 
so in essence we could be saying freedom of speech is the heart of the problem.......
 
So your entire diatribe means that Social Media is a benefit to society? That millions of individual voices, opinions, biases, conspiracy theories, etc. helps a nation go forward?
 
Indydave said:
so in essence we could be saying freedom of speech is the heart of the problem.......
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No, lack of critical thinking, stupidity, and gullibility are the problems. If people didn't click garbage content, social media wouldn't create garbage content.
 
Indydave said:
so in essence we could be saying freedom of speech is the heart of the problem.......
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Freedom of speech needs to be made under circumstances that allow it to be spread with guidelines that allow it to be done correctly and responsibly. For example, on Social Media you have no way of being sure that the person expressing his views is not a 6-year old child, is not a crazy person in an asylum that allows its inmates to be on the internet, or done by someone that was convicted of being a felonious criminal.

If you go to a park and someone is orating on a soap box about this injustice or the other, at least you can seen the type of a person he seems to be.

Would you buy anything these people said if you were seeing them in person? They all have Facebook pages and you can read their comments there.

 
All right wing hacks do nothing but politicize everything, because they don't have facts on their side. They have a stupid belief and they deny all the facts that prove otherwise, claim everything is biased against them, and do nothing but project. They politicize everything because they dont have anything to support their positions, period

JMB802 said:
No, lack of critical thinking, stupidity, and gullibility are the problems. If people didn't click garbage content, social media wouldn't create garbage content.
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That has been the issue for the entire history of humanity. Social media and the internet just allows people to be fed lies and propagandize more easily, and reach many more people. But history of humanity is full of examples of rich and powerful doing shitty things and duping the public into supporting their atrocities and exploitations
 
Luckyone said:
Freedom of speech needs to be made under circumstances that allow it to be spread with guidelines that allow it to be done correctly and responsibly.
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i.e. the state should regulate free speech.
 
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