There have been moments this century when social media helped organize social change. Public policy in nations was changed, and social media played a role. Entire governments have fallen to protesters, many using social media tools. The emergence of smartphones empowered people in new ways, too, especially hard-to-block satellite phones that circumvent government efforts to censor social media.
Yet, I often read my Facebook and Twitter feeds and conclude the Internet and social media have failed to realize their potential.
Technically, people failed to use the technology in the manners most appealing to me. That view is elitist, yes. But, when I see one post after another about pop stars and social media celebrities it is disheartening.
Like many people interested in new media and rhetoric, I imagined citizen journalists blogging on important topics. I imagined traditional media finding new ways to use digital distribution channels to interact with audiences.
I convinced myself that people would use technology to bridge differences, not reinforce them. Instead, online spaces are tribal, closed communities with clear membership markers. People choose their virtual communities and cocoon with like-minded individuals. Online, we’ve perfected segregation by all manner of traits: gender, race, religion, ideology, income, and so on.
We segregate in the physical world in many ways. We work with people like ourselves. We live among people like ourselves. Yet, there has always been some intermingling across communities.
Online, we’re able to reinforce identities and we do this constantly. Social media proclamations allow people to demonstrate their qualifications and their loyalty to the group. People leaning one way or another on a topic drift towards the extreme position, sometimes unconsciously.
The United States is divided more than anytime since the 1960s. What stuns me is how quickly the supposed core value of communities change and a majority of the community accepts the change. President Trump stakes out a position and many Republicans follow. This has happened throughout history, as the parties swap core positions. Who is leading whom?
Social media expedites these swaps in values. Groupthink takes hold and nobody wants to be excluded from a chosen group. I’m frustrated to know that research on group allegiances has been proved time and time again, in real time, thanks to social media.
Can we blame the tools or should we blame human nature? I’d rather see posts of kittens and puppies than most of the political nonsense appearing in my social media feeds.
At least sometimes the Internet and social media do help organize positive change.
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