what is Social Media doing to us?

Articles about social media platforms and their effects on society.

the internet is the greatest device for opening up the world ever devised. It is democratising and enabling. But that assumes its users draw on it to aid System 2 thinking. Plainly, there are times when we use it to inform key decisions – to find out about an illness, to research a holiday, to track a scientific breakthrough. But in the main the... See more

Will Hutton • We need a social media with heart that gives us time to think

sari

The question of whether there’s space for unresolved thoughts online is really a question of whether there’s space for most people.

Most of us neither think in Tweet-sized bites nor find it natural to share thoughts with everyone we know. Yet, on the internet, posting usually means exactly that: sharing Tweet-sized bites with everyone you know. So... See more

phoebe

From Bill Gates’ conversation with Trevor Noah on the What now? podcast, reflecting on social media and the Internet:

Our industry was very young and just incredibly fast moving, but it didn't have this, oh, this will be a tool for Holocaust denial or weird impacts. And the idea that it would directly be used for political influence, one country

sari

It's unfortunate because too much of a good thing (and it is a good thing – shrewd and well-intentioned people sharing the things that have helped them), when consumed in a frantic haze, becomes a bad thing (a cacophony of voices shoving advice down your throat, bolstering your belief that there's something you're doing wrong and if you just fixed... See more