And this encapsulates exactly why social media is divisive and destroying our society. It allows people to sit in their own echo chambers and only hear what they want to hear.
The only thing that breaks through the echo chambers is the advertising the tech companies target at people.
What we need is regulation of social media - the monopolies need to be broken open and news and information from a variety of high quality news sources needs to be forced into people’s feeds.
Things are less extreme in the UK and Europe partly because we still have public service news organisations that people trust and still listen but even that is not enough as that is being edited out of people’s lives.
The solution to the violence and disinformation is regulation of social media and forced access to good information. It doesn’t have to be one news source but a variety of news sources need to be forced into people’s feeds instead of the advertising. That is how we save society from social media and make the discourse and discussion better.
I’d also suggest the right are more susceptible to disinformation because religious groups like to control what people see. Religious people select themselves into more extreme echo chambers. So if you’re Christian you’re constantly told that you shouldn’t consume certain media because it’s bad, and instead they only consume “wholesome” sources that have also been weaponised by the right wing. So any regulation of social media needs to cut a cross that for the good of society - peoplee need to be shown the news, warts and all, regardless of age, religion or political beliefs.
And this encapsulates exactly why social media is divisive and destroying our society. It allows people to sit in their own echo chambers and only hear what they want to hear.
The only thing that breaks through the echo chambers is the advertising the tech companies target at people.
What we need is regulation of social media - the monopolies need to be broken open and news and information from a variety of high quality news sources needs to be forced into people’s feeds.
Things are less extreme in the UK and Europe partly because we still have public service news organisations that people trust and still listen but even that is not enough as that is being edited out of people’s lives.
The solution to the violence and disinformation is regulation of social media and forced access to good information. It doesn’t have to be one news source but a variety of news sources need to be forced into people’s feeds instead of the advertising. That is how we save society from social media and make the discourse and discussion better.
I’d also suggest the right are more susceptible to disinformation because religious groups like to control what people see. Religious people select themselves into more extreme echo chambers. So if you’re Christian you’re constantly told that you shouldn’t consume certain media because it’s bad, and instead they only consume “wholesome” sources that have also been weaponised by the right wing. So any regulation of social media needs to cut a cross that for the good of society - peoplee need to be shown the news, warts and all, regardless of age, religion or political beliefs.