How Social Media is Ruining Politics
I found this article to be very interesting. It briefly looks at how media has changed
politics two times in the past. Once in
the 20’s when radio became more popular than fairgrounds and in the 1960’s when
television became popular. Now a third
media is changing politics and that is social media. However, it believes that because of social
media it is not about substance but about what can grab a person’s attention. Pictures and emotionalism are liked and
re-tweeted more often than reason.
We have talked in the past about how fickle social media can
be and I think this article just re-iterates that. It is the brief message that catches our
attention that gets read. It is the mean
or sappy message that we all like and not the explanation of truth. This social media message may hold our
attention but only until the next message is sent out that is more over the top
or cutting. We than forget the first
message and move on to the next message.
We are just as fickle on the messages that are trending as we are on the
social media site that is being used.
Although I understand how easily information can be passed around through social media, why is it that emotionalism is so much more common today than when
ReplyDeleteTV took over? Personally, I see a lot of heart string tugging ads on the television during campaign season. In fact, I always saw more on TV than I ever did while I was on Facebook for personal use. I do agree though, that social media is very fickle and I can see how that would severely impact politics. Most people don't do that digging necessary to be properly informed on any matter despite the fact that virtually any information we may want is at our fingertips.