Social media is a relatively new creation. When I was born in 2002, the term social media was not a commonly used phrase to describe the digital world that has grown along with me and become an integral part of our lives. In today's society, I believe we have a dangerous dependency on social media that is causing problems in every part of our culture.
I find the area of our lives that our beloved apps have the most destructive impact on is politics. Our country is on the forefront of technology compared to the rest of the world. The problem with that is that we do not know what happens to a civilization after being exposed to this kind of constant attention to ourselves. The social problems that have stemmed from new media are very prominent and can be seen on a daily basis. With many people feeling pressure from being constantly in the spotlight of the internet. This also is true for many issues that shape our political landscape. Continued and nonstop coverage of the world is good in many ways; exposing human rights violations, reporting crimes and illegal activity immediately, etc. However, it also allows false information to be spread whenever and where ever.
Before the days of social media, there were trusted and reliable sources of information that people could go to to get educated and well informed news. Fast forward to the present, and anybody with access to the internet can be an "expert" on whatever they please. This combined with the emotional and raw political nature of America, a deep rooted divide between people of this nation has formed.
Whether or not social media has caused the informational divide to grow, giving people a shared space to freely speak their beliefs without fear of getting into an argument in person has definitely added fuel to the fire. The internet has given people with extreme views a digital voice to be heard that they would not have had. This ties in with the speech theory of promoting tolerance. These extreme beliefs are now more prominent and there is now a lot more that we as Americans need to tolerate. I believe that this increase in radicals has thrown off the normal time that it takes us to learn or become tolerant of these beliefs. So, for a time, I think that the internet and social media will cause problems in politics, but I think that there will also be a period after this where we have a sort of golden age of acceptance of all kinds of people.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2019/10/30/does-social-media-make-the-political-divide-worse/#193deca56e3a
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/05/13/publics-in-emerging-economies-worry-social-media-sow-division-even-as-they-offer-new-chances-for-political-engagement/
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