Facebook explores whether social media is good for democracy
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As part of its Hard Questions series, Facebook has decided to explore the question of whether social media is good for democracy.
"A democratic *form* of government is okay, as long as it doesn't work."
Sorry if too political, I do try to keep it un-Soapbox, and this one just might go off the rails.
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As part of its Hard Questions series, Facebook has decided to explore the question of whether social media is good for democracy.
"A democratic *form* of government is okay, as long as it doesn't work."
Sorry if too political, I do try to keep it un-Soapbox, and this one just might go off the rails.
I'd love to see; "After extensive exploration, Facebook has determined that social media is pretty much shit for all forms of government."
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I'd love to see; "After extensive exploration, Facebook has determined that social media is pretty much shit for all forms of government."
I'm no fan of social media but is it really any more of an echo-chamber than traditional internet forums? Both seem to readily descend into tribalism, group-think and extremism. Then again, the first half of the 20th century managed a very similar descent without any assistance from the internet. Maybe the problem is the message not the medium.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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I'm no fan of social media but is it really any more of an echo-chamber than traditional internet forums? Both seem to readily descend into tribalism, group-think and extremism. Then again, the first half of the 20th century managed a very similar descent without any assistance from the internet. Maybe the problem is the message not the medium.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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I'm no fan of social media but is it really any more of an echo-chamber than traditional internet forums? Both seem to readily descend into tribalism, group-think and extremism. Then again, the first half of the 20th century managed a very similar descent without any assistance from the internet. Maybe the problem is the message not the medium.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
It was my attempt at snark, though my statement could be considered in two ways; that it's bad, or that it's irrelevant. I agree with you. People are self-selecting, especially with social groups, and always have been. To me, the problems aren't like-minded people gathering, but people being disrespectful and hijacking groups for their own purposes. In 2016, I quit several Facebook groups when they were taken over by a minority of very vocal extremists. Even the most light-hearted discussions were all to often turned vitriolic by these agitators. (It strikes me that, generally, the people accusing others of group-think, are the ones preventing genuine debate over controversial issues.) (To paraphrase someone else, somewhere else; isn't it odd that you can have two people agree on 99% of things, yet won't speak to each other because they are polar opposites on 1%.)