The Facebook Insanity
A couple of weeks ago I read this really interesting article about Facebook in the New York Times. The link does not go to New York Times since you may not have access to that article (it’s probably behind the paywall) but US News apparently can reprint – just be aware that the original source is New York Times, written by Charlie Warzel.
The article is a sad comment on social media because the analysis done by the author suggests that the insanity that we are seeing today may be being driven by the commentators – regular people – themselves, not foreign adversaries or bad actors (although the commentators may be bad actors themselves). Imagine, knowing someone for years and then they pop up on Facebook – or Twitter – and start spouting insane conspiratorial stuff…like they had become some kind of stranger. There is something about Facebook that brings out the crazy in them.
The author gained permission to read through two baby boomers’ Facebook account and immersed himself in the account for a few days (or maybe weeks). The two boomers first joined with hopes of maintaining contacts with their friends and families but have now ended up a little dismayed about what has happened to some people.
“Even if both manage to stay away from Facebook for good, their stories are just two in a sea of billions. No story is the same because no feed is the same. And yet these same dynamics that tortured my two participants — a sea of contextless news and acrimonious comments revealing their neighbors’ worst selves — are on display for millions of Americans every day.”
“What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers”, New York Times, Charlie Warzel, November 24, 2020.
I mean, I think of Rudy Giuliani and wonder “what happened to him?” He was America’s mayor and now he is pushing voter fraud stories without any evidence. It would be one thing if he was producing evidence of fraud in courts but he is not. He is wasting everybody’s time.
He just gets nuttier and nuttier but he’s not the only one. So are a lot of Americans.
Sydney Powell and Lin Wood are two other lawyers talking crazy stuff about voter fraud without producing any evidence. As lawyers, they ought to be able to recognize what evidence is.
America needs a crash course on critical thinking, although you would think the three lawyers would have critical thinking but maybe they lost that kind of thinking along the way. We do need mandatory critical thinking courses every year to refresh and update our thinking because too many Americans are just being led astray.
The other important thing about the article is that the author suggests that the closeness of the election should not have been a surprise if we had been paying attention to Facebook. People were already expressing their true selves on Facebook – it was all there for everyone to see.
Now, I had decided to stay off of Facebook ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal so I no longer know what is being dispersed on social media. For some reason, my memory says I got out before Trump became President but a brief searching indicates that the news came out in 2018 which would be after he became President.
It seems like I was off a lot longer than that.
“That thought bounced around my head this month as the election returns trickled in, revealing in unmistakable detail the footprint of a divided nation. For those expecting or at least hoping to see broad consensus, the results were a gut punch. It’s difficult to imagine that a significant number of Americans see the world through different eyes and, in many cases, are constructing an alternate reality. It’s confounding to pundits, pollsters and our neighbors alike.”
“What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers”, New York Times, Charlie Warzel, November 24, 2020.
Okay, one last quote before I get off and start pulling in new data. I got to wrap up.
“Ben Collins, an NBC News reporter who covers disinformation and online extremism, argued recently that one takeaway from our recent election ought to be that it’s “well past the time to start realizing that what people say on Facebook and in comments sections is what they actually mean.” The fights, the jokes and the memes are all an expression of legitimate feelings — all the more authentic because, unlike getting a call from a pollster or talking to a reporter, we often feel as though nobody’s watching.”
“What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers”, New York Times, Charlie Warzel, November 24, 2020.
