Social Media, that double edged sword

Today one thing is sure: social media is not a magic technology that will guarantee peace and democracy around the world.

After the Arab spring there were hopes that Twitter and other platforms, seemingly empowering citizens and distributing power, would help strengthen dialog and cooperation, resulting in better political systems. Yet here we are, only half a decade later, and the world’s most talented social media troll is sworn in as president of the US.

Assuming that a new technology will make politics better is nothing new. Similar hopes have been entertained with previous iterations of “new” communication technologies, most famously the telegraph that was widely expected to contribute to world peace: “It is impossible that old prejudices and hostilities should longer exist, while such an instrument has been created for the exchange of thought between all the nations of the earth”, wrote Charles Briggs and Samuel Maverick of the telegraph in 1858.

A decade later, the British ambassador to the US declared that “the telegraph wire [is] the nerve of international life, transmitting knowledge of events, removing causes of misunderstanding, and promoting peace and harmony throughout the world.”

What Trump understood ahead of everybody, and the reason why he commands a certain level of respect from an innovation standpoint, is that the world moved to a new phase, where opinions could be manipulated, false informations spread, and truth flouted to no consequences (at least in the short term). Trump “says it like it is”, he resonates with the man on the street.

History repeating again.

16th century German professor of theology Martin Luther, a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation, used the new media of his day — the printing press — to spread his ideas, create the buzz, and eventually change the course of the Christian faith.

His secret weapon: writing his pamphlets in German, while the Pope and his armies of intellectuals were publishing their attacks in Latin. The man on the street could understand Luther, not his opponents who were locked in the previous iteration of the world, seemingly trying to leverage a capacity to rule that innovation had taken away from them.

So today, dear Twitter, dear Facebook, dear WeChat, dear every social media platform, welcome to the family of technologies that are to be classified in the most crowded category of all: the “double edged swords”.