Polarization

With the more and more common use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, social media platforms have began to place users in algorithms to match its users with specific content based on their likes and content views. What this does is place users in groups of like minded people (homophily) in order to appease the users desired content. The issue with this is that the algorithms do not care whether a belief or idea about any issue is wrong or twisted. Using the algorithms these social media platforms will continue to place you in groups of like minded and similar people in order to fuel your desired content. Doing this can split people even IRL (in real life) friends because they do not believe or like the same things they do.

Isolation

Isolation is social media looks like this: A man believes that the president is the worst and everything he does is wrong. Social media will pick up on those algorithms of things he likes and dislikes and will isolate him with other ads and content that support his belief and leaving out any conflicting views. This is troubling as no one is 100% right about things we cannot experience or see for ourselves. Having conflicting views is necessary for critical thinking. Critical thinking allows us to think about a subject and have views from surrounding beliefs in order for us to come to a right and correct decision.

Mitigating Isolation and Polariozation

The best thing we could do to mitigate these problems is get the idea out of our heads that we are always right. Half of the time we are probably wrong. If we take the time to broaden our scope of beliefs and ideologies maybe we will receive content that is less isolating and polarized

Withdrawn from physical interaction

There are all sorts of reasons why a person may isolate themselves and withdrawal from physical interactions with other individuals. These reasons can range from mental health to fears. The truth though is that the human needs social interaction regardless of how an individual may feel and social media has provided that to these individuals. Here lies the beginning of the issue. Interaction through social media does not provide emotional expression. If a person is isolated and has feelings of hopelessness and despair, these feelings cannot be relayed over technology unless they are bluntly put. This being the case, when an isolated person posts or shares things over social media and a person responds in any manner that is perceived negative by the individual then the situation the person is in can become worse.

The dangers of differences on social media

Of course, as individuals we will all have our own beliefs and activities that we believe in and enjoy and with those we meet people with similar beliefs and enjoyments and eventually form friendships and distinguishable groups because of these. Unfortunately, in social media some of these groups can be highlighted and targeted by other groups in social media to cause tension or anger in people without regard of how other people may be impacted by it. A group that can an example of this targeting is the militia. Though some militia groups have made questionable or wrong actions, these actions should not be the face of the militia as a whole. Because of these actions though social media has been targeted by other groups as government hating anarchists. This is the danger of polarization on social media. If my group of people call the militia government hating anarchists, then I will tend to believe my group of people and then in turn share that with other people that have their groups of people. When, in fact, the militia is not a group of government hating individuals but I did not do the research to discover that.

Lessening the symptoms

Isolation and polarization are two areas in social media that will always be there. A “cure” for these type of situations does not exist. There are though ways to lessen the symptoms. First, DO YOUR RESEARCH. You can not assume to know something just because you heard it from someone that you “roll” with. There are always two sides to a story. It could be safe to assume that if you hear one side of the story but not the other you are definitely missing something or something has been left out so that you see the viewpoint someone else wants you to see. Second, as a rule, be aware of peoples feelings. A situation that is simple for me or you may not be as simple for another person. A resolution that worked for us may not be the same way to resolve another persons situation. We learned last week that emotional posts are what currently drives social media attention. How we say what we say could make all the difference to another person.

Capturing the Attention

Topics in media are very diverse and there are many views to a topic. The most important part to get people reading a social media post is how you initially present your content and whether it appeals to the targeted reader. Brady, Gantman, and Bavel (2019) explain that emotional and moral content in social media has been found to be the most read and discussed because it is motivationally appealing to individuals. The importance of capturing attention is really defined by the topic of the discussion. For example, on topics of mental health, it is important to grab that motivational attention from the readers because it is a subject that has been suppressed and stigmatized in past years. This would be considered a topic that has the chance to make people aware of the issues as well as help those that deal with mental health feel they have an advocate speaking out for them.

Maintaining the Attention

Due to such a large amount of content and varying outlooks on subjects there is seemingly an unlimited amount of content available about any subject one may desire to view. This can make it difficult to maintain the attention of the targeted audience. In todays social media “sharing” is the key factor in maintaining the attention of the subject and acquiring new attention from other users. Brady, Gantman, & Bavel (2019) make mention of the prevalence emotional and moral subjects have on the ability to capture attention. The same could be assumed for the maintenance of the subject. If the people are desiring emotional and moral driven conversation then maintaining those feelings within the subject driving the subject to where it strikes the emotional and moral chords of a persons being, then it will be likely one will maintain the attention of their audience. Content is just as important in maintaining attention. If a person’s attention span on social media is only 8-9 seconds and you were able to maintain their attention longer than that; then what a feat! Though, even if the subject was excellent, no person wishes to see the same thing more than once or twice. Three or four times is old news and they will move their attention to other places. Another way to maintain your audience is by making people feel they have value. People wish to be heard and feel that their opinions have value and meaning. By acknowledging your audience and their opinions, you will deffinitely maintain their attention.

References:

Brady, W. J., Gantman, A. P., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2019). Attentional capture helps explain why moral and emotional content go viral. doi:10.31234/osf.io/zgd29

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