[C8]

It is probably not in dispute that politics is more venomous than ever before. There seems to be increasing evidence that social media leads to greater conflict and individual depression. Research out today seems to add to the drumbeat of negative effects:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... veals.html

New study shows that an hour a day on social media reduces kids' happiness
Girls suffer more 'adverse effects than boys' and feel less happy with appearance
Photographic media has also been linked to narcissism and social comparisons

of course websites like PO.com see incredible levels of hostility by those emboldened with their annonymous status and immune from seeing the humanity of the face they attack (one of the main reasons I frequent here infrequently)

So I am pondering a theory and want some feedback, here it is:

Social media use can gradually alter general social behavior- even in face to face encounters- such that it dehumanizes all aspects of social interaction.

How does this happen, what is the mechanism? I propose this line of logic:

1. Social interactions on the web are inherently dehumanizing b/c they abstract individuals by removing key elements of humanity (face, voice tone, situation)

2. Computer based interactions produce more powerful traumatic events such as a person being mass shamed, nationally embarrassed, personally attacked, etc. Even watching this happen to others is traumatic as the fear develops of being a possible target yourself.

3. Powerful trauma pushes the psyche into "flight or fight" mode in which survival is more important than compassion, logic, and humanity.

4. This trauma, plus the ubiquity of social media, means people are interacting on the web more than in person- when it comes to important emotional events.

5. Thus, the "default" mean behavior of the web starts to crowd out all behavior- even when in person.

I base this theory on the evidence I am seeing of the following events instigated via social media:
a. more flash crowd riots and looting
b. more mass fights in malls, streets, etc.
c. more vandalism against those who hold differing views

Many walk the streets, sit in classrooms, go to work, and stay at home with a virtual gang of fellow predators that they are in constant touch with.

Effects on society
If people are on the web getting depressed and angry- I can see where this could lead to total social breakdown. The glue that holds us together is our humanity. Computers dehumanize people to the point of violence, depression and suicide. There is no way around this dehumanization as computers must abstract people in order to transmit their words, faces, & situations efficiently and cheaply.

I believe that- left on its present course- the internet, (anti) social media, and ubiquity of computers in our lives could lead to mass upheaval and civilization decline where "survival of the fittest" becomes the dominant value of the land. The internet could become the vehicle for a breakdown of civilized society.

In any case, I am interested in your views

[Outcast_Searcher]

Kids have always been cruel to each other. Perhaps social media tracks that cruelty better?

I base this theory on the evidence I am seeing of the following events instigated via social media:
a. more flash crowd riots and looting
b. more mass fights in malls, streets, etc.
c. more vandalism against those who hold differing views

Increased hatred and violence is a consequence of increased automation, wealth concentration, unemployment, poverty and hopelessness? Perhaps fair and just redistribution of wealth would fix that.

There are lots of changes going on. Social media is only one.

No doubt, the internet is tending to change people. For example, I think it's shortening attention spans. I no longer can stand to sit and read a book for 6 hours, much less all day, like I used to. Google, videos, and instant access to information are distractions from my serious reading.

No doubt, crime (like flash looting) will evolve due to the technology, but it's not like crime hasn't evolved with technology throughout recorded history, just as the rest of civilization has.

One of the first things I noticed from some intense studying in college was how tied together everything is. Math and science, music and the arts, politics, religion, business, economics, etc. etc. all influence each other. (Hadn't really conceptualized that fully before college, K-12 was so compartmentalized and I didn't study much then).

So yeah, some of the negative effects are depressing -- but there are a ton of positive effects too.

Pretending like now, liberals magically reshuffling all the wealth in whatever way THEY deem is fair and just will "fix things" is as silly as they idea that the 50+ year epic failure of the liberal "war on poverty" would come anywhere close to fixing (much less ending) the poverty problem.

[ROCKMAN]

Interesting thoughts. But is it a question of more nastiness or just a much bigger audience that can be reached with just a click? We all had an asshole or two in the neighbor when we grew up. Now our "neighborhood" has expanded thousands of times so we hear from many times more assholes.

It's like sex crimes: decades ago the MSM media didn't report nearly as many as we see today. So that many more sex crimes today or just more reporting of them?

[C8]

Interesting thoughts. But is it a question of more nastiness or just a much bigger audience that can be reached with just a click? We all had an asshole or two in the neighbor when we grew up. Now our "neighborhood" has expanded thousands of times so we hear from many times more assholes.

It's like sex crimes: decades ago the MSM media didn't report nearly as many as we see today. So that many more sex crimes today or just more reporting of them?

What I am wondering is if the "bigger audience" you mention doesn't take a controlling power over daily interactions. Think about how much the internet controls our actions when we are NOT online:

You can be videoed at any time and this can be shown to the world- watch what you say and do
You email can be hacked and published- and distorted by groups to turn you into a monster
Your place of employment can be mobbed by online hate to remove you from work

I am contending that today- our everyday interactions with each other are now under the power of the internet. We are no longer free to speak, free to ask difficult questions, free to associate- whatever. The online world now dictates behavior in the real world- and this is twisting human relations into dehumanized manipulations.

We are losing our human real world. The internet is colonizing it.

[DesuMaiden]

Kids have always been cruel to each other. Perhaps social media tracks that cruelty better?

I base this theory on the evidence I am seeing of the following events instigated via social media:
a. more flash crowd riots and looting
b. more mass fights in malls, streets, etc.
c. more vandalism against those who hold differing views

Increased hatred and violence is a consequence of increased automation, wealth concentration, unemployment, poverty and hopelessness? Perhaps fair and just redistribution of wealth would fix that.

I agree. Hatred and violence are the results of increased automation, wealth inequality, unemployment, poverty and hopelessness. Social media isn't the result of hatred and violence. Those factors you listed are. But social media helps facilitate the society's worst elements to make it known to the masses.

Unfortunately, fair and just redistribution of wealth will never happen under the current paradigm of capitalism because like George Carlin said "they (as in the bourgeois or rich, big businesses and their rich owners) want more for themselves and less for everyone else". Under a society that is under the overbearing and ubiquitous influence of capitalism, no fair and equal redistribution of wealth is possible. Only be overthrowing the capitalist domination of society can a more egalitarian world can be made because capitalism is predicated on the unequal distribution of wealth amongst society. Only when capitalism has minnimal influence on society can a more egalitarian world be built. As it is right now, the USA and almost all of the whole world is under the spell of capitalism.

Anyone saying the USA is a socialist country doesn't understand the definition of socialism. Under socialism, the means of production of commodities and services is under the control of the working class and not the bourgeois. The means of production under socialism are in public ownership not private ownership. But in the USA, almost all of the means of production is under control of the private-ownership of the bourgeois, which makes the USA capitalist not socialist at its core.

Plus, big corporations in the USA have such a strong lobbying power over the government. Plus, a liberal democracy is a cruel joke because it is just the capitalist class giving the working class the illusion they have freedom of choice because they can vote. But voting is a relatively meaningless choice because the electable candidates have been preselected by the capitalist class to primarily support their interests--even if the candidates go against the interests of the electing working class, it doesn't matter! Whoever you (the working class) elect is already preselected by the bourgeois to serve their interests even at the expense of your interests. So forget the politicians. They are an irrelevancy. The politicians are put their to give you the IDEA that you have FREEDOM of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners (referring to the big businesses run by the super-rich capitalist class). They own YOU.

And this is by no means a conspiracy theory. This is just reality. The game is rigged in favor of the top 1% wealthest population, and rigged against the 99% of the poorer population from a person's birth to death because the American Dream is a dream because you got to be asleep to believe in it.

I doubt society's wealth will be evenly and failry redistributed in the face of societal collapse. More likely, the wealthy 1% will use even more violent and oppressive means of preserving their status quo through the means of their wealth and power. There will be an increasingly omnipresent police state (which is already happening in the USA and many of other countries). But eventually, the 99% will be so poverty-strucken, starving and desperate that they overthrow and kill the 1% in a bloody-revolution...until all of society collapses to nothingness.

[Outcast_Searcher]

I am contending that today- our everyday interactions with each other are now under the power of the internet. We are no longer free to speak, free to ask difficult questions, free to associate- whatever. The online world now dictates behavior in the real world- and this is twisting human relations into dehumanized manipulations.

We are losing our human real world. The internet is colonizing it.

I respectfully disagree with this.

For criminals, and especially terrorists, no doubt, having to worry about cameras and information being gathered would be a constant suppressing force.

(And as a "good guy", I'm glad that's the case.)

However, as a basically honest person who isn't afraid to express my opinion (and therefore unafraid to be, for example, blackmailed because someone might hear and record my political opinions, or whatever) I JUST DON'T CARE about all the cameras and information gathering as far as my normal day to day behavior. Frankly, 99.9% of the footage/info they'd get about me would be profoundly boring.

Now, this doesn't mean I give the US Government a "pass" on all the illegal gathering of data around the globe they're doing without proper consent or the knowledge of their "friends" or citizens. It just means I don't let that knowledge suppress me from saying, for example, that I think what politician X just did is galactically stupid, or from anything else I would normally do. (For one example, I expect to get a traffic ticket some day due to some stupid camera set up. I don't drive fast enough to be jailed or lose my license, so I just have decided to live with that and drive normally, which is within 5 mph of the speed limit 95%+ of the time).

And, I'd be willing to bet this is true of a huge percentage of people. Just think how many people don't mind being on Facebook, when they KNOW Facebook is essentially just a gigantic vacuum of information for sale to the highest bidder.

...

So OK. What am I missing? Are 90% of people closet criminals (i.e. felons), and I missed it?

[SeaGypsy]

One thing I rate as a huge change. Recall the days of completely fact free conversation, idiots arguing bullshit? I remember such being the norm much of the time with most of the people. The ability to instantly cross check & reference billions of bits of information, to whatever degree of credibility, has changed the way people think, talk, communicate. The downside seems to be less creativity, originality. The upside is more ability to locate likeminded individuals & collectives, which can turn into a downside when the intent is severely antisocial.

[Newfie]

Marshall Mchulan researched media and came up with the global village. What he didn't foresee was the echo chamber where we would break apart into many millions of isolated villages. Just look at Peak Oil.
Neil Postman picked up on Mchulan and wrote Entertaining Ourselves to death which starts to lay out the trauma you are discussing.
More recently someone wrote a article on the ways News is Bad For You, which runs along these same lines.

So I agree with your general line of thought.

I would add this, that in our ff slave culture young folks don't have much to do to contribute to society. Into that vacume we introduce social media, and also hunter/killer games, zombie games. Do these games condition young folks to look at others as some deviant form of humanity that has no value and needs to be destroyed? Are we (unintentionally) training a new generation of warrior who will find fullfilment in killing "others"? Does that not sound a lot like what is going on in the Islamic world? If there then why not here? Black vs white vs Asian vs gay vs Christian vs Catholic vs whatever. Such behaviour is not very far in our Western Cultural past, why would it not be laying in our subconscious ripe for exploration?

[SeaGypsy]

It would seem that the 200 year experiment with the enlightenment peaked in the late 90's & we have been rapidly descending since. It has been normalized to see imagery last on display in the dark & middle ages- extreme brutality, snuff movies are now a mainstream propogandist tool- rare only 20 years ago, very black market, now easy to find daily updates of the new levels of depravity people are inventing.

[ralfy]

Peak oil will likely destroy both social media and industrial civilization.

[KaiserJeep]

You fellas sure took the ball and ran with it. I just can't stand it, this is about the sixth thread and the sixth reason for the world to end that has been posted here this week.

Every trend will not necessarily go to the bitter end, course corrections do occur.

PO.com, for example, is a moderated site, and abusive behavior and language are not tolerated. Just like my momma never tolerated such in her kids.

I think most people behave online as the do in real life. Some sick minority let their imaginations run wild online, and express themselves in ways that they dare not do in real life. They deserve pity, and not a like response.

If you spend a lot of time in social media, perhaps you should run a cost/benefit analysis. It has been 4 years since I last posted and over 9 months since I last read anybody else's page. Nothing missed, because there is no real content there.

[Zarquon]

I won't comment on po.com (or you'd all mob me), but take e.g. the comments section in pretty much any news site. If you assumed that the comments under most articles were representative for the public as a whole, the end of the world can't be very far away. There are those who can't write a simple sentence or don't even bother enough to try, those who apparently didn't even read the entire piece before ranting, those who didn't understand its most basic conclusions, those who feel a need to link everything to terrorism, and those with an urge to tell the world ten times a day how much they hate muslims and feminists. The majority of people doesn't have these problems, but you don't see that; you only see the mental minority.

Another problem, as mentioned above, is that is now entirely possible to live in a separate media bubble of your own choice, where everyone agrees with you that black is white, up is down and the moon is made of green cheese. Nobody in such a subculture questions these facts anymore. Just today I came across a US website selling "survival" gear. The comments section was the scariest thing I've seen in quite a while. It seems a lot of people there try to train their young children to hide from government killer drones when the godless decide to wipe out the few remaining patriots. That this day will come soon was an accepted fact.

[MD]

There is a real disconnect between anti-social media and real life. Us internet junkies saw it start with the chat rooms 25 years ago. The anonymity and facelessness of internet interaction allows an individual to release their inner demons safely and in ways never before available.

A deep callousness in our millennial generation is the result, which has spilled over into real life in ever increasing measure.

It's all very anti-social. We've unleashed a monster.

[C8]

There is a real disconnect between anti-social media and real life. Us internet junkies saw it start with the chat rooms 25 years ago. The anonymity and facelessness of internet interaction allows an individual to release their inner demons safely and in ways never before available.

A deep callousness in our millennial generation is the result, which has spilled over into real life in ever increasing measure.

It's all very anti-social. We've unleashed a monster.

You expressed what I was saying better than I did!

[ralfy]

Social media are based on extensive levels of energy and material resource use. Given that, what will "destroy" civilization in the long term won't be social media but limits to growth.

[Newfie]

Ah, back to basics.

While I agree it does appear that in the interim we will make the world a much less pleasant place to live.

[Cog]

I find great humor in the extremes of social media.

Hillary Clinton is literally Hitler.
Donald Trump is literally Hitler.
Hillary Clinton is going to lock us all up in concentration camps.
Donald Trump is going to lock us all up in concentration camps.

Trump is going to start WW3 with the Russians
Trump is a puppet of Putin

Obama is going to serve out a third term by invoking martial law
Bush is going to serve out a third term by invoking martial law

This has been the best election ever to get the extremists out to post their paranoia on the internet. Whenever possible, I encourage them to go full retard.

[C8]

I find great humor in the extremes of social media.

Hillary Clinton is literally Hitler.
Donald Trump is literally Hitler.
Hillary Clinton is going to lock us all up in concentration camps.
Donald Trump is going to lock us all up in concentration camps.

Trump is going to start WW3 with the Russians
Trump is a puppet of Putin

Obama is going to serve out a third term by invoking martial law
Bush is going to serve out a third term by invoking martial law

This has been the best election ever to get the extremists out to post their paranoia on the internet. Whenever possible, I encourage them to go full retard.

I think there is a reason for all this extremism increasing lately- social media is inherently tribal in nature. The basic unit of social media is the mob. We have migrated from media filtered thru news agencies to direct mob action. Today, people don't fear CNN, FOX, etc. Today people fear one of the partisan mob discovering something, videoing something, etc. and presenting this to the mob for a lynching.

Social media is inherently anti-establishment but it is also pro-mob, pro-hysteria, pro-anarchy- it is a destabilizing force in a society without a stabilizing follow up to restore order. It is the French and Russian Revolutions endlessly. It breaks down the bonds that keep diverse people working together to maintain a nation.

[Newfie]

Spot on, really nicely put.