Social Media: Boon or Bane?

My friend Jason suggested the following blog prompt: Is social media beneficial or destructive in it’s current permutations? Both? How so?

I have a feeling he’ll be replying to this as well, with some strong feelings, and here’s my take on that question before we get his.

Over the past decade we’ve seen an amazingly rapid decline in civility. People say things to others (often behind the mask of anonymity afforded them online) that no one would have ever thought to say before the explosion of social media. But it’s not just social media that’s to blame, and I would say it’s one of three root causes of the decline.

First, there’s been a de-emphasis on education. Of course, politicians who have no real policies (I call the Republican Party “The Party of ‘NO!’”) want people to lack knowledge and critical thinking because that’s how they stay in power. The only explanation I can think of as to why lower and middle class people would misguidedly put faith in a rich politician they think is looking out for their best interests is ignorance. Keep the populace uninformed and appeal to their emotions instead of their rational thought (didn’t Plato warn against that?) and you can manipulate them easily.

Second, we can blame tRump for a decline in civility over the last few years, because he has allowed his followers to feel emboldened by his rhetoric. This is why I often refer to them as Qtrumplicans, blind followers of conspiracy theories and lies that were happily disseminated by QAnon like gasoline on a fire. Of course, we really have to go back to Newt Gingrich for the beginning of this movement, and the seeds he planted are strongly woven into modern discourse.

And third, to return to the question that prompted all this: social media has served as the prime communication channel for the bile spewing and spreading from the manipulators and their ignorant followers who echo it without thinking or evaluation. Why would a man read online posts, and then grab an automatic rifle to go free enslaved children being held captive in the basement of a pizza restaurant, even when the place had no basement? Given the decline in education in the state of Florida and elsewhere, we can only really save the children by helping them thoroughly understand their world, and social media has provided us with a skewed view of our world.

Social media had such promise: to allow many voices to partake in modern discourse. Those in previously marginalized groups and individuals could take the witness stand in the court of public opinion, grab the microphone and testify, and be heard at last. We didn’t need to get all of our news and entertainment from the old sources; anyone could be a creator. Unfortunately, too much of online creation has led to lies rather than an expedition to uncover greater truths.