Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
You are totally and completely wrong here. Years ago, we had a mainstream media. It was expensive to publish newspapers and to run TV stations, and they had strong economies of scale, so you didn't have many choices. People basically got their news from common sources.
Information technology has radically changed this. Anyone can publish anything on-line, in text, images or video, at little to no cost. Printing presses are now like assholes -- everyone has one (and when you have the former, you can be that latter). The revenue models that kept the mainstream media going have fallen apart. Google and Facebook make their money by providing individualized content, and everyone sees something different. There are no more common sources.
IMO, this is one of the biggest drivers of polarization. There is a historical argument (made by Benedict Anderson) that nations formed because of newspapers, which created imagined communities of their readers. Each person now lives in their own imagined community.
|
What you've written is entirely correct. However, I was writing to TM, and more generally to the types of sophisticated media consumers who post here. That social media has created a scenario in which TM has to sift through thousands of different stories rather than five or six networks and newspapers doesn't render him any less able to separate the bullshit from the credible. It simply makes the job a lot more time consuming for him.
But as to the average consumer? You're sadly spot-on. And I agree 100% that customized news feeds (using "news" liberally as most of it tends to be opinion) and social media siloing have tribalized people. This is why I detest Bookface. It is ruining society. It's given boring narcissists a platform from which to spew their dull and exaggerated wares, creating depression, envy, and a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses phenomenon most people cannot afford. It's destroyed the notion of true friendship in favor of slight and tenuous connections (I think I'm closer to actual friends with people here than anyone I've met on social media). It's annihilated privacy to an extent beyond Orwellian. And nodding to Huxley, it's provided a grand ugly diversion for the stupid masses who consume media and news exclusively through it. They sit on it for hours a day, checking likes, emoting at each other, venting in ignorance with little to no understanding of that on which they comment.
Bookface is a cesspool. On news and current events, it's all the people in the room who should never be allowed to speak given bullhorns. On social matters, it's an asshole factory of people screaming, "Look at me! Look at me!"
I don't want to look at you. And I don't care what you have to say. There's 90% probability you're a narrow minded ass with nothing useful to offer.
Which is why I come here to discuss politics and current events. I know I'll hear something in response that's well considered and informed.
