HAVE WE LOST THE ABILITY TO ENGAGE IN DEBATE?
It is almost impossible to click onto a social media link relating to a current affairs issue, listen to a phone-in talk show on radio, or even just skim the first few pages of a national newspaper without observing the decline of rational debate.
It seems more often than not we are confronted by the two sides of an argument that involves all parties simply shouting ever louder in an attempt to reinforce their stated view and drown out any opposing ideas.
There appears to be a lack of respect, caring, kindness and compassion in these discourses and, without any rules or restraints within these exchanges the conversations tend towards anger, impoliteness and intolerance.
Is this a function of a changing society, a lack of
ingrained civic skills, or is this type of behaviour led by the
growing dominance of social media as the primary platform of news for many people, in a world
where time pressures mixed with a seeming inability for users to maintain a focus on a subject matter for any length of time?
While people still trust traditional media sources more than that garnered from social media, there has still been an overall decline in the trust of all forms of media. Many people have started to ignore or avoid the news.
Individuals often engage in subliminal strategies to navigate this new complex social space. Their personalised searches will tend to reinforce existing views and polarise debate. This might then be exaggerated by the inbuilt algorithms within these social media platforms that create ‘filter bubbles’, further refining the information the users see, limiting diversity of opinion and reinforcing any ‘confirmation bias’ that the individual may have.
Whilst it is possible to ‘break out’ of these filter bubbles, this requires the user to make a conscious effort to evaluate the information they are exposing themselves too, recognise there could be an issue and a bias in the first place, and open their mind to a broader set of sources. People can also make a conscious decision to avoid web sites that are known to carry unverified or weakly sourced news information.
Another problem that is often exacerbated by online media is that of gossip and rumour. If there are questions raised over the integrity of the traditional media outlets, the online media can be even harder to trust. The root of this issue lies in everybody wanting to be the first and the fastest. In trying to spread news stories quickly, many sources are not referenced or checked before publication. As such, the facts might not be facts, they may be partially true, outdated, or just rumour. Veracity comes second to being first and getting the views and clicks.
30 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | September/October 2018
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