It’s a bit of a self-sustaining cycle. Media depends on engagement, social media even more so. Hate engagement is capable of increasing engagement, and it’s easier to create content that elicits hate engagement. Throw Internet Rando participation on top of that.
No, you should not quit social media. The beauty of it is that content that traditional media would never take a chance on which you would like to consume actually exists. What you should do is be mindful of what kind of content you choose to consume, and recognizing when content has an undesirable agenda beneath its surface. Content is not normally created for no purpose. Always ask “Why was this created? How does the creator intend for me to react to this? Is that an appropriate reaction?”
Just letting the content pour into your brain without consciously filtering it is a bad idea, and that’s got nothing to do with social vs traditional media at all.
Then again, it might be easier to make people stop doing something than it is to make them do something mindfully. Doing anything with intent is difficult.
Not that I disagree with you, I’m just afraid it’s a lot to ask. I guess that goes for asking people to stop using social media as well though.
I’m sure you’re right for a lot of people. Considering the audience here, who I expect to be more capable of doing more complex things on the basis of “they’re here”, I hope my advice is more productive than it would be to, say, the local rural Facebook moms group.
It’s a bit of a self-sustaining cycle. Media depends on engagement, social media even more so. Hate engagement is capable of increasing engagement, and it’s easier to create content that elicits hate engagement. Throw Internet Rando participation on top of that.
No, you should not quit social media. The beauty of it is that content that traditional media would never take a chance on which you would like to consume actually exists. What you should do is be mindful of what kind of content you choose to consume, and recognizing when content has an undesirable agenda beneath its surface. Content is not normally created for no purpose. Always ask “Why was this created? How does the creator intend for me to react to this? Is that an appropriate reaction?”
Just letting the content pour into your brain without consciously filtering it is a bad idea, and that’s got nothing to do with social vs traditional media at all.
Then again, it might be easier to make people stop doing something than it is to make them do something mindfully. Doing anything with intent is difficult.
Not that I disagree with you, I’m just afraid it’s a lot to ask. I guess that goes for asking people to stop using social media as well though.
I’m sure you’re right for a lot of people. Considering the audience here, who I expect to be more capable of doing more complex things on the basis of “they’re here”, I hope my advice is more productive than it would be to, say, the local rural Facebook moms group.