The perils of social media

The world around us is changing and so are we. Social media and communication revolution have changed the way people interact and forge relationships. According to Yuval Noah Hariri, the animal world is still diverse and distinct in many ways but the human world has gotten homogeneous with humans appearing the same the world over. While there are positives in this global integration, there are several negatives too, considering the vast gulf in the level of education and economic circumstances of the people inhabiting different parts of the world.

Scholars and communication experts have started warning of the perils of social media. According to scholars like Jonathan Haidt, social media transformed into a monster from 2009 to 2012 because of the way engagement was promoted between hithertofore anonymous social media users. The like button on Facebook and the retweet button on Twitter led to engagement pattern that solicited praise besides arming anonymous users with the power to give virality to the content of their choice. This development, according to US National Digital Media Survey, led to increasing number of self-harm and suicide incidents amongst the youth especially the young girls.

Instagram, Facebook and Twitter’s sharing and content proliferation options led towards greater conflict, anxiety and a predilection for external validation amongst the users. According to Tristan Harris, the problem of social dilemma i.e. the compulsion to inhabit social media landscape, even if one knows the pitfalls lying ahead, makes the job of weaning young impressionable cohort away from social media a difficult undertaking. According to Haidt, the unbridled use of social media leads towards ‘fragilisation’ of the young generation especially Generation Z that came of age in 2014. That generation due to adverse exposure to social media is prone to anxiety and trigger points that elicit visceral responses.

The rise of populism the world over is also a consequence of social media. The political discourse became fractious and violent after 2014 when social media platforms enabled virality of content sans identity. The us versus them debates engendered a culture of echo chambers and social media bubbles as per Fady Nagler, Zelinsky and Tucker (2019). A survey and analysis of Twitter accounts by the researchers found out that 61% of the members of the most conservative segment in sample displayed an aversion to follow the accounts of left leaning subscribers and publications.

According to John Haidt, not only the Generation Z but all other institutions in the US became adversely impacted by social media after 2012. The writer argues in book, Life After Babel, that social media made people more hostile and fragmented. By allowing everyone to attack everyone, social media turned people against people through non-stop reality shows. As per Dominic Spohr (2017), the “tyranny of filter bubbles and echo chambers” led towards political polarisation and hatred towards rivals. The quality of democracy actually started going down in the US after 2016 because of use of hate peddling narratives on social media by politicians.

According to Alan Kantrowitz who built the retweet button on Twitter, “We Handed a Loaded Weapon to 4 year Olds”. According to an American founding father, James Madison, the most imminent threat to democracy was from factionalism. He had characterised his top fear in these words: “Factions animated by passions which are contagious like fire”. Now the dangers to liberal democracy are emerging from the passions inflamed by the animated debates on social media fuelling hatred.

A manifestation of the above is the rise of populism that believes in whipping up public frenzy through critical statements and phantasmagorical promises. The apogee of above was the rise of Donald Trump in 2016. Trump thrived on an electoral culture spawned by social media that preferred community, racial identity, and political tribalism over economic issues. That is why Obama’s good economic performance did not get translated into better approval ratings for the Democratic Party. Whatever Trump said was lapped up by his flock as a divine commandment.

The great leader could do no wrong was the credo of his loyal followers. Trump’s ‘Truth Social Media’ company attained a mindboggling price to sales ratio of 2000 compared to normal companies’ ratio of 10. And that too for a company having revenue of $3 million and net worth of $8 million. His use of soundbites and inflammatory tweets resonated well with an electorate already polarised by the social media. In a prescient article ‘Yes, Social Media Really is Undermining Democracy’,

American commentators on social media recommend delayed entry of youth in social media along with introduction of laws and technology to ensure identification of social media users. The anonymity on social media encourages verbal violence and immunity form accountability of one’s act even in advanced societies such as in the US.

When American politics can get dysfunctional due to negative influence of social media, one can well imagine the impact on fragile polity and poorly educated electorate of countries like Pakistan. The din and jostle of social media encourages conflict, factionalism and demagoguery. The continual online sparring and suppression of the contrarian views silences the sane voices and diminishes the quality of debate. Political parties in Pakistan have started using social media as weapon of choice to attack the adversaries muzzling dissent and discouraging challenges to the meta narratives of the leaders of the political cults.

As compared to advanced democracies with high literacy rate, in Pakistan the impact of social media on society is more damaging. Instead of becoming part of rational debates, the social media driven jousts in Pakistan are further isolating the young and poorly educated youth into social media bunkers, parrying assaults and sniping with equal ferocity from the perceived safety of these redoubts. A bunkered mentality is thus fostered that laps up the narrative of any cult leader hook, line and sinker.

According to thinkers like Yuval Noah Hariri, the advent of AI is likely to further fragmentise and depersonalise the politics by hijacking the narratives through the tyranny of technology. Deepfakes, and algorithm driven customised feeds have already shown a preview of the coming anarchy. Pakistan direly requires laws and technology that prevent depersonalisation and polarisation of politics.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2024.

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