Social Media: Democracy Has Left The Chat

Social media was created to bring society together. Many believed that social media was going to make our democracy stronger through lightning quick communication and transparency. However, in today’s society, that couldn’t be farther from the truth, and it is arguably because of social media’s attention grabbing algorithm. The algorithm works by tracking the actions of users on social media, and using that data to predict what post they will most likely want to see.

Furthermore, In the article Fake News On Social Media: People Believe What They Want to Believe When IT Makes No Sense At All, there are 3 factors that differentiate conventional news from news on social media. The first is the user’s mindset, which affects how information is processed. The second is the source of information is uncertain, and the third is the volume of information that is put out on social media. To sum this up, when people go on social media, their mindset is to find entertainment and pleasure, not to find reliable and trust worthy news. Due to all the uncertainty, confusion, and volume of disinformation that comes from social media, user’s have to rely on primitive emotions and instincts to guide their beliefs. This is fatal to a democracy, because in this type of climate, people are beginning to differentiate each other in a tribalistic way, and there is no public discourse in that.