BreakingtheSocialMediaPrism

• 我的短评

  • 类似的情况也发生在五毛和美分，躺平和清零……

• Highlights

  • in an era of growing social isolation, social media platforms have become one of the most important tools we use to understand ourselves—and each other. We are addicted to social media not because it provides us with flashy eye candy or endless distractions, but because it helps us do something we humans are hardwired to do: present different versions of ourselves, observe what other people think of them, and revise our identities accordingly.
  • social media is more like a prism that refracts our identities—leaving us with a distorted understanding of each other, and ourselves. The social media prism fuels status-seeking extremists, mutes moderates who think there is little to be gained by discussing politics on social media, and leaves most of us with profound misgivings about those on the other side, and even the scope of polarization itself.
  • Decades of subsequent research showed that people who are assigned membership in social groups will consistently prefer members of their own group and punish those outside its boundaries.
  • One of the main reasons we look for membership in social groups such as political parties is that they can provide us with self-esteem that we cannot obtain on our own.
  • What they found was somewhat surprising: the people who spread such falsehoods were not simply motivated to see their own side win; rather, the researchers found they have a need for chaos—a desire to see the entire system suffer. This need, the scholars speculated, emerges from the experience of marginalization itself—something
  • social media give extremists a sense of purpose, community, and—most importantly—self-worth.
  • Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms allow us to present different versions of ourselves; monitor how other people react to them with unprecedented speed and efficiency; and revise our identities accordingly.
  • Though television and radio remain the leading source of news for most Americans, social media are rapidly becoming the most popular news source for young people.
  • Social media platforms, they claim, are not only shaping what products we buy but also our most intimate thoughts and desires.28
  • the majority of people who discuss politics on social media have extreme views. The more we are exposed to such extremists, the more we risk confusing them with the moderate majority.
  • The researchers discovered that people misperceive each other’s intentions all the time. For example, people who think that they are simply sharing facts about an issue are often perceived by others as expressing an opinion. Even worse, the researchers discovered, when such perception gaps exist, conversations are much more likely to become uncivil.