It certainly seems that way. I think social media has made people turn on eachother. Everything is dumbed down. Sides are calling eachother names. Its all so useless.
Then again, politics has always been divisive and resorting to name-calling isn’t anything new. The research, however, seems to indicate that it has gotten much worse with social media.
Yes, it’s obvious even without any research papers, at least to me who grew up before social media. It has changed and weaponized people against eachother. People assume the worst about people just from reading a comment.
And it’s kind of ironic, it’s closer to “anti-social media” than “social media.” It works to bring together small groups (e.g. book groups), but anything of any real scale and it breaks down into us vs them mentality.
Someone actually did phrase the term “anti-social media” for stuff like Lemmy. I like the term a lot but it actually is a better fit for describing all forms of social media where people are instantly judging and fighting eachother, because that’s not what we do in real life.
Someone says something we don’t agree with in real life, and we just move on. It’s their opinion and we don’t have to fight it. We can express what we think and that’s it. But on these platforms, some people are instantly going to war over it. They block people, they block entire instances, and they think they are fighting some kind of battle, such as fighting against nazism appearently.
It’s just silly.
If I don’t like gay people, as an example, then I’m appearently part of the third reich and want to send them all to gas chambers. Yeah sure, not an overreaction at all is it? :)
It certainly seems that way. I think social media has made people turn on eachother. Everything is dumbed down. Sides are calling eachother names. Its all so useless.
Yup, and that’s more than a feeling, there’s a lot of evidence for it. Here’s a PDF research paper about polarization in social media, here’s an article, and here’s a related poll of people in emerging markets.
Then again, politics has always been divisive and resorting to name-calling isn’t anything new. The research, however, seems to indicate that it has gotten much worse with social media.
Yes, it’s obvious even without any research papers, at least to me who grew up before social media. It has changed and weaponized people against eachother. People assume the worst about people just from reading a comment.
Funny actually.
Exactly!
And it’s kind of ironic, it’s closer to “anti-social media” than “social media.” It works to bring together small groups (e.g. book groups), but anything of any real scale and it breaks down into us vs them mentality.
Someone actually did phrase the term “anti-social media” for stuff like Lemmy. I like the term a lot but it actually is a better fit for describing all forms of social media where people are instantly judging and fighting eachother, because that’s not what we do in real life.
Someone says something we don’t agree with in real life, and we just move on. It’s their opinion and we don’t have to fight it. We can express what we think and that’s it. But on these platforms, some people are instantly going to war over it. They block people, they block entire instances, and they think they are fighting some kind of battle, such as fighting against nazism appearently.
It’s just silly.
If I don’t like gay people, as an example, then I’m appearently part of the third reich and want to send them all to gas chambers. Yeah sure, not an overreaction at all is it? :)
I wish people would calm down and breathe.