Do you think social media has divided the country?

[saltine]

Originally Posted by Clarallel

Yes, but your title line is really unrelated to the text of your post.

Yes, I do think social media has contributed greatly to the divide. But it's not new that people say for whom they'll vote. What social media has done is to allow rabid right-wingers a disproportionate voice.

This kind of rhetoric doesn’t help

[bawac34618]

Originally Posted by Avondalist

It's like the late 60s after Nixon was narrowly elected. Lots of jobs, lots of anger.

There's a theory that the French Revolution was caused not by poverty and oppression but by rising expectations due to gradually improving treatment of the people. I think the same dynamic is happening here, and in the 60s.

Marginal people are being included as never before, and that has emboldened rather than pacified them.

I see social media as simply a tool not a driver of this.

You make some good points here. I would also add that for marginal people who have only recently begun to be able to have a seat at the table (LGBT people for instance), the mere prospect of progress being reversed and things returning to how they were a few decades ago is frightening. There's a lot of those kinds of feelings behind the #Resist movement.

[Tinawina]

This has been building for a long time, but I do think social media accelerated it because of the aforementioned ability for people to create silos around themselves and the lack of gatekeepers for content. The latter is both a blessing and a curse. It’s great that people get their ideas out there and can find like minded folks, but fringe opinions and misinformation spread quickly now, and the actions of a few get amplified.

ETA: I will say I had a bit of a moment today, watching Wagon Train of all things LOL. It was on MeTV or something like that. For those who don’t know it was a 60s drama about settlers traveling in the old west. The kind of show that always had a moral lesson every episode. Anyway this one was about a disrespectful, “bad” young teen girl who had recently joined the wagon train,and how all the adults hated her because she was mischievous and talked back. But the macho lead guy was very clear that she was still a child and harsh physical punishment would not be appropriate. By the end it was clear that she didn’t trust adults because of her life experiences and that’s why her attitude was so bad, but she wasn’t a bad person, just a hurt child. The lesson was even misbehaving, disrespectful children need love and understanding and not harsh punishments.

What struck me was today that would be politicized as weak liberalism and not good American values. On WAGON TRAIN lol. We live in crazy times.

[tripleh]

Originally Posted by KayAnn246

We are more exposed to fake news, fake outrage and Russian bots on social media

fake news = CNN/MSNBC
fake outrage = the liberal left sheep(and Soros funded protesters....even that bum should eventually run out of $)
Russian bots exist just about in all online media on each side.

Originally Posted by Tinawina

This has been building for a long time, but I do think social media accelerated it because of the aforementioned ability for people to create silos around themselves and the lack of gatekeepers for content.

the censoring of conservatives by the fascist left tech disagrees with this.