Good morning, Tip Jar readers. This week is about social media — what it was first intended for, and what it’s become — and how we can navigate the digital turmoil and come out for the better.
Seatbelts on for this one.
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The trouble with our public commons
Like many today, I’m active on social media. I write online for a living, and also read what people say in our digital public square.
Facebook kicked off this experiment over a decade ago, with its early mission being to “make the world more open and connected.”
Presumably, Facebook intended to ramp up connectivity as a way to improve communication.
With the Elon Musk-Twitter hubbub of recent weeks, it’s safe to say optimism in this experiment has diminished.
The problem with social media is that it has transformed communication into a performative act. The goal isn’t actually to communicate, but to put on a performance.
In comment sections online, people act far more hostile to strangers than they do off-line. Discourse is generally less civil and more extreme.
A 2017 study took the pulse of half a million tweets and found that the use of a moral or emotional word increased its virality — its chances of spreading — by 20%.
In other words, the likelihood for us to amplify a message, for better or worse, is emotionally motivated, and social media incentivizes it.
This April, The Atlantic published a long, winding essay by famed social scientist Jonathan Haidt, which he called “the most important thing” he’s ever written.
In it, Haidt invokes the parable of the Tower of Babel. God, “offended by the hubris of humanity,” makes it so people can no longer understand one another.
Afterward, people are left frustrated, isolated, and “condemned to incomprehension.”
Sound familiar?
“Our institutions are malfunctioning because of the way that social media amplifies performance and moralism and mob dynamics, which brings the normal process of dissent to a grinding halt,” he told the Financial Times on Friday.
We are bombarded with calls to support a cause by “liking” something for all to see, and akin to a forest fire, the more inflammatory the posts, the faster they spread.
Without time for the usual reflection that in-person life call for, it’s no wonder online mobs form so quickly and devolve so dramatically.
Regaining social intimacy
In-person conversations mean people take turns, and thus have the chance to make each other smarter.
But the two-way nature of communication has faltered. By flocking online, everyone talks simultaneously — which means no one has the chance to use their ears.
Despite the scale of online communication, it can still be approached with nuance and a sense of intimacy. Granted, the technology is too complex for any one solution to take hold.
But to me, that leaves room for opportunity — it comes down to individual action.
Reminding ourselves what a public commons is meant to be can be one way to reframe our media use.
It used to be a place for conversation, shaking hands, and breaking bread. Chairs and tables rather than a gladiator ring.
Transferring these ideas to platforms that aren’t built to host them is a challenge. But in aiming to do so, the hope must be that your intentions can act as brakes for impulsivity and reactiveness, at least on an individual basis.
As I’ve written before, mindfulness has a role to play. Striving to regain intimacy in communication, on- and off-line, is a small, simple step everyone can take, and one that can tone down the pitch of our new public commons.
The best possible side effect would be that other people notice what you’re doing, and they start doing the same.
And that, to me, is the best way to exploit the power of social media.
— Phil
Tip Jar Recs
- Jonathan Haidt’s full essay: “Why the past 10 years of American Life have been uniquely stupid.” (The Atlantic)
- Something different: This guy was 5’7”. After surgery he’ll be 5’10”. (BuzzFeed News)
- Something about work: The pandemic led to the birth of a new species of digital nomad. Now they’re all flocking to one island in the middle of the ocean. (GQ)
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