I stayed up late last night reading an article from the April 22nd issue of the Atlantic, which had a profound, and if not life-changing effect on me. I would bet if you read it, it would do the same for you. I realized how wrong I was. The article was entitled, “Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid,” by Jonathan Haidt, an imminently qualified social psychologist from NYU. In a nutshell, we have all been victims of social media. It all began in 2009 with Facebook and Twitter, basically rubbing the lamp and releasing a catastrophic genie.
Haidt’s opening paragraph read:
“The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.”
The result has been that social media has become the Frankenstein of the 2010s; the opposite of what Zuckerberg wanted. Instead of bringing people together it has fragmented us into our own little bubbles, trusting no one. In actuality, neither Republicans nor Democrats are at fault, we are more accurately, all victims. However, having said that, the election of Trump in 2016 accelerated the process because he took advantage of this fragmentation to expand it even further. Knowing that, “to elect either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis as our next POTUS in 2024, will be to rewrite the American Constitution in disappearing ink.” (my words, not Haidt’s). From what I read last night, if we do elect one of them, we will have effectively killed this country and this democracy. That is not a hyperbolic statement. You don’t have to believe it but it is the consensus of just about everyone who knows what they are talking about. I definitely do not, and I suspect neither do you. The Republic party needs to come up with someone else for 2024, but definitely totally different than those two. Either one would be the death knell to our democracy. Let’s not get into Biden at this point, because it is irrelevant.
Now we have a totally fragmented society, with none of the fragments having a clue what to do and going 1000 different directions, and we are getting increasingly more fragmented. Stupidity has happened at all levels of society (universities, churches, etc.).
Haidt maintains the following (some paraphrasing): 1) it is going to get much worse before it gets better, if it does; and 2) the supply of disinformation will become infinite; and 3) we have to make changes or we definitely will implode.
There are 3 solutions according to Haidt:
1. Harden Democratic institutions: Reforms should reduce the outsize influence of angry extremists and make legislators more responsive to the average voter in their district.
2. Reform social media: A democracy cannot survive if its public squares are places where people fear speaking up and where no stable consensus can be reached.
3. Prepare the next generation: Gen Z––born after 1997––bear none of the blame for the mess we are in, but they are going to inherit it. The signs are that older generations have prevented them from learning how to handle it.
Tom did not know what he was getting himself into or he would have never exposed me to your group, and I was like a rattlesnake seeing a mouse. He didn’t even invite me to join; I just did, being the ass that I am. Since Trump, like most liberals, we have all been pissed and wanted to lash out at those who elected such an obviously bad human being, but it didn’t work, because facts mean nothing to those who do not understand the difference between facts and opinions. They are mutually exclusive. Opinions can lead to facts, upon rigorous examination. Example: I think the sun is hot (opinion). The sun is hot (fact). As they say, “you can have your own opinions, but you can’t have your own facts.”
Tom is really too good a person to have inherited me and he has tried desperately to act as a decent mediator, but to no avail through no fault of his own. Even after calling him every name in the book, he still bounced back. He is a great person for the times, an unbelievably loyal friend (he stuck by me) and great for everyone’s mental health. Even mine. I think.
Haidt’s article is very long but definitely worth the read. As a result, I probably will get off of Facebook. I don’t use any other aspects of social media.
Glad that article found you!
I’ve never had Facebook or Twitter account in my life, and I’m going on almost a decade of no cable, news, subscriptions of such, or even own a tv. I’m happy to be out of the Portland bubble, and am much more aware and compassionate of Americans’ paths. I’m also less stressed, and have let go of attachments to “the right way”, cuz it’s really only my opinion and perspective. I still have values, but I don’t feel I need to force anyone to see things my way. I vote, and let the river bend how it’s supposed to in its right timing… cuz all right timing; every moment. Peace.
Chris,
I’m glad the article found me, too. It blew me away; I could not put it down. As I read it, I kept thinking in my little brain, that this guy has finally, finally explained why we are so screwed in so many ways as a nation. I had paid little attention to all the hype about the downsides of social media but now it’s crystal clear. But in a sense, we were blindsided and that is not necessarily being stupid, per se, because social media looked good in 2010, but most of us never thought it though. We all just ran out there and started buying hot cell phones, like they were candy. We became addicted to suicide pills. The same thing happened when television came in. Read Jerry Mander’s, 1978, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.” Only then, we didn’t have the internet to exponentially spread the addiction.
But if the Republicans re-elect the Golden Asshole, then they are being stupid, and their stupidity will involve all of us and that’s being greedy. And this includes Trump’s army of clones: DeSantis, Cruz, Paul, McConnell, Greene, Gaetz, etc. Armed with Haidt’s and others’ wisdom and warning, to not put that fucked up anti-democratic, treasonous bunch from January 6 all in prison is insane. And any of the insurrectionist sympathesizers in Congress. Is not treason still treason? Are there different shades of treason? But Congress won’t do that because who wants to put themself in prison? And what leader has cajones these days? Certainly some Democrats and Liz Cheney, Susan Collins, Romney. I’m so afraid, so afraid we are screwed unless these brain-deads somehow, overnight, get a brain and get a clue clue.