Americans Agree: Social Media Is Divisive (But We Keep Using It)
The current state of social media is a symptom; it&#x27;s a mirror. To blame the mirror for who and what is staring into it doesn&#x27;t help solve the problem(s). True, social media (as it stands today) is an enabler. It helps the symptoms (e.g., confirmation bias) exists and persist, but ultimately it&#x27;s still not the tools&#x27; fault.<p>In the USA, I&#x27;d be more ready to place more blame on the binary political parties, as well as the mainstream media. The internet will eventually greatly reduce the power and influence of all three of these. What we&#x27;re witnessing now first-hand is these three power-holders collapsing and screaming &quot;But...But...we&#x27;re still very relevant. Look! Look!! You need us to protect you from &#x27;them&#x27;&quot; (with &#x27;them&#x27; being one of the other power-losing enties). All three have become terribly efficient at using hype, hyperbole and divisiveness as means to &quot;proving&quot; they still matter.<p>For more info on these concepts see &quot;The Influential Mind&quot; by Tali Sharot.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Influential-Mind-Reveals-Change-Others&#x2F;dp&#x2F;1627792651" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Influential-Mind-Reveals-Change-Other...</a><p>While she doesn&#x27;t do a direct take down of media, social media and politics, it doesn&#x27;t take a genius to read between the lines a bit and extrapolate her science onto the current state of things.