According to this recent article for the Guardian by academic Jay Van Bavel, social media is an echo chamber that distorts reality, creates polarisation, fuels rage, rewards the expression of extreme and obnoxious behaviour and causes depression, disillusionment and exhaustion. Nothing much new there, but Van Bavel sets it all out with stark clarity, blaming a select few users for ruining it for the rest of us.
So, what can be done? Van Bavel points out that "[p]latforms could easily redesign their algorithms to stop promoting the most outrageous voices and prioritise more representative or nuanced content". But that seems unlikely, as long as they remain in the hands of the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and it remains more profitable to encourage extremities of opinion. In the meantime, though, "we, as users, can take back some control - by curating our feeds, resisting the outrage bait, and refusing to amplify the nonsense. Think of it like deciding to follow a healthier, less processed diet."
I can personally vouch for the benefits of doing so - even if that means cutting out those whose viewpoints you broadly agree with. Confining my feed to those who predominantly post about arts and culture has helped me to retain (some) sanity while other very online types seem to have lost theirs.
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