You’re Blocked!
Social Media is shaping our behaviour & beliefs & becoming our ‘algorithms of bias’
Isn’t it great that more of us are engaged in politics? Big turnouts to vote, online petitions, party memberships, attendants to events and so forth; politics hasn’t been this interesting for ages.
We’re also more ‘political’ as consumers; you only have to look at the differences in brand affinity and consumer ethics. The nuances of what’s ethical and what’s not. It’s rather good really, isn’t it?
Or are too many of us becoming a bit too spiky?
Personal experiences over the past 18 months have made me realise how our behaviour and beliefs are driving us apart — amplified by social media and shift in social behaviour. I’m quite happy for the world to know my political persuasion (not that exciting), but I’m not evangelical. Nonetheless, I engage with friends and family who express both similar and opposing opinions and I try to see the funny side.
Most of us are becoming wise to the subversive power of social media content. The removal of context, inflammatory subtext and editing, and so on. However, it seems that we’re struggling for it not to come between us.
This first occurred, for me, last year when a member of my family, shockingly, ‘blocked me’. Not just in virtual social space but a full on ‘Black Mirror’ gone for good kind of way. All because I challenged her opinion on the EU, and maybe badgers. Had we lived close by, and had such a discussion occurred over the dinner table, I’m sure we’d be having Christmas together.
I’m now starting to get a bit of complex, because its happened again. This time a valued colleague, from my days as a university lecturer, a highly intelligent man with a PhD in Economics and former trader. I challenged his views, gave an alternative opinion, asked some questions, etc. My last contact was a gesture of goodwill… but he too slammed the digital door in my face. An academic, an economist, a middle aged man with a military background, unable to engage in discussion, and most importantly to be challenged on his world view.
Upon reflection I think I may have made it worse, in both cases, by trying to be occasionally funny. For many of us Brits confrontation requires anaesthetic… this usually comes in the form of humour. We’re rather good at it, or least I thought we were.
The abstraction of social media makes us perceive the person posting in reflection to our own opinion, a contorted or biased opinion with reduced empathy. Social media platforms are not forums where the nuances of tone and subtlety of humour or crudeness of sarcasm can easily be detected.
We’ve all had the awkward email moments, ‘is he joking?’, ‘what does she mean by that?’, and so on. Its so common we customarily negate the issue with a ‘J’ or cheeky emoji — a sweeter to express the intent.
But this doesn’t seem to be the case on social media; Twitter, Facebook or otherwise. Here’s what we’re actually doing; we’re polarising ourselves. Many have said that Orwell could never have imagined, in writing his prophetic 1984, that we’d willingly adopt the technology and behaviours that brainwashes us. The warnings from the likes of Eli Pariser on ‘Filter Bubbles’ and echo chambers are well known. But this phenomena is based on digital algorithms.
The reality is that we are compounding our ‘Filter Bubbles’ and echo chambers with our behaviour and beliefs; our own internalised ‘algorithms of bias’.
In the real world we naturally surround ourselves with people of similar backgrounds. It’s normal that we reinforce each other’s world view in some way or the other. But its also normal that we challenge and measure each others views. In light of what I have previously explained, this now seems to be socially unbearable, even outrageous and offensive for many.
Professionally (I can’t help but bring back to work) this is a facilitating communication challenge. But this is bigger than that…
Please listen to each other, and please find your sense of humour and humility.
NB:
Strong rebuttals welcome!
