Babel is a metaphor for what some forms of social media have done to nearly all of the groups and institutions most important to the country’s future—and to us as a people.
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
When I was in high school, Facebook used to be a place where my classmates grow crops in their virtual farms. I never caught up with the bandwagon as I was satisfied with playing neopets, reading books, and practicing my writing.
I was even hesitant to sign up until I was convinced that it’s a good place to build an online community with my peers in and out of the classroom. It was year 2009.
It’s even fascinating how almost 13 years have gone by since I entered into the world of Facebook. Yes, being in the platform makes me feel like im in a new kind of reality. Don’t you too?
Once social-media platforms had trained users to spend more time performing and less time connecting, the stage was set for the major transformation, which began in 2009: the intensification of viral dynamics.
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
Today, my generation no longer play virtual farms on Facebook. We argue about ideas, mostly trying to prove how wrong the other person is. And especially with the elections coming in within two weeks, arguments become more outrageous and often heartless. How easy it is to forget that we’re actually dealing with real people on the other side of the screen. People with families and with dreams.
I used to think that the online community I’d find in Facebook would feel like the physical one, where people still have the decency not to say the words that could potentially hurt a real human being. And instead of drawing us closer as a people, the platform slowly drew a great divide.
I can’t help think how most of the time, the truth never gets famous or applauded online.
From Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid:
But gradually, social-media users became more comfortable sharing intimate details of their lives with strangers and corporations. As I wrote in a 2019 Atlantic article with Tobias Rose-Stockwell, they became more adept at putting on performances and managing their personal brand—activities that might impress others but that do not deepen friendships in the way that a private phone conversation will.
How did we get here?
From Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid:
In February 2012, as he prepared to take Facebook public, Mark Zuckerberg reflected on those extraordinary times and set forth his plans. “Today, our society has reached another tipping point,” he wrote in a letter to investors. Facebook hoped “to rewire the way people spread and consume information.” By giving them “the power to share,” it would help them to “once again transform many of our core institutions and industries.”
In the 10 years since then, Zuckerberg did exactly what he said he would do. He did rewire the way we spread and consume information; he did transform our institutions, and he pushed us past the tipping point. It has not worked out as he expected.
With people attacking government officials and presidentiables they dislike, I wonder if they would still have the same confidence to speak to the same people the very same words the write online should they be given a chance to do it face to face. I can feel the hate and the distrust online and they seep through how we live our lives offline too.
Recent academic studies suggest that social media is indeed corrosive to trust in governments, news media, and people and institutions in general.
Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
What does a healthy democracy look like?
From Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid:
The key to designing a sustainable republic, therefore, was to build in mechanisms to slow things down, cool passions, require compromise, and give leaders some insulation from the mania of the moment while still holding them accountable to the people periodically, on Election Day.
Online, everything appears to be breaking news. And the dissatisfaction usually emanates from the inability of those in power to act instantly on things. But I think that just because they are in power doesn’t mean they don’t need time to think through the best course of actions. Even we take time deciding over trivial matters.
If you’ve been seeing a lot of provocative fake news lately, here’s how to spot fake news.
jessa 