Atlantic article re social media

We don't seem to have this topic in play: taking a hard look at this very medium we are using to debate all the other things.

The pros: Where can we do that better than online, sharing opinions over social media with enormous numbers of others, offering everyone a soapbox? How else can people everywhere so broadly share perspectives and join in discourse with one another, from different walks of life and wearing different pairs of shoes, creating new understandings and empathies?

The cons: Where else do we see perpetration of things like rage rants that you would never say in front of your grandmother, death threats over contrary opinions, the muffling of debate and dissent in educational settings, and the marshalling of forces that boil over into our streets to threaten no-longer-trusted institutions?

In his article for The Atlantic, Jonathan Haidt invites us to compare social media with The Tower of Babel. Have we rebuilt it, have we destroyed it, and where does the metaphor carry us next? He's looking from an American perspective, and at its equally negative effects on both the left and rights sides of their political spectrum, but ultimately we're all in this boat together: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trus...

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. How did this happen? And what does it portend for American life?
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The high point of techno-democratic optimism was arguably 2011, a year that began with the Arab Spring and ended with the global Occupy movement. That is also when Google Translate became available on virtually all smartphones, so you could say that 2011 was the year that humanity rebuilt the Tower of Babel. We were closer than we had ever been to being “one people,” and we had effectively overcome the curse of division by language. For techno-democratic optimists, it seemed to be only the beginning of what humanity could do.
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Social scientists have identified at least three major forces that collectively bind together successful democracies: social capital (extensive social networks with high levels of trust), strong institutions, and shared stories. Social media has weakened all three. To see how, we must understand how social media changed over time—and especially in the several years following 2009.
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The literature is complex—some studies show benefits, particularly in less developed democracies—but the review found that, on balance, social media amplifies political polarization; foments populism, especially right-wing populism; and is associated with the spread of misinformation.
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Platforms like Twitter devolve into the Wild West, with no accountability for vigilantes. A successful attack attracts a barrage of likes and follow-on strikes. Enhanced-virality platforms thereby facilitate massive collective punishment for small or imagined offenses, with real-world consequences, including innocent people losing their jobs and being shamed into suicide. When our public square is governed by mob dynamics unrestrained by due process, we don’t get justice and inclusion; we get a society that ignores context, proportionality, mercy, and truth.
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I can suggest three categories of reforms––three goals that must be achieved if democracy is to remain viable in the post-Babel era. We must harden democratic institutions so that they can withstand chronic anger and mistrust, reform social media so that it becomes less socially corrosive, and better prepare the next generation for democratic citizenship in this new age.

I've never trusted the typical social media channels and consequently thought I was above it all, but I'd have to ignore the internet altogether to actually be immune and is that any kind of solution? I think this genie is out of its bottle and there's no stuffing it back at this point. Understanding how it manipulates us is of paramount importance for anyone who uses it. Expecting we can control that through legislation, censorship or any other approach has the odor of Luddites, and we saw how well that worked out. I'm not ready to believe that social media has cursed us beyond repair, any more than any other radical technological change of the past has done, but we are definitely being reshaped. We need to be aware of that, and "evolve" responsibly.

What worries me is the corrosion of trust across the board, and how that distrust also naturally carries over into internet search results and, of course, social media. I wonder if this is this a bizarre case where acknowledging the problem ("social media bad!") thereby only adds to the problem.

‘Cheering section’ for violence: the attacks that show 4chan is still a threat (Guardian)

The Washington DC shooting was the most recent to spawn out of the extremist culture of unregulated ‘chan’ message boards...