In a wonderfully written piece for Politico magazine,
Nicholas Carr makes the case that social media is ruining Americans politics.
Carr, who writes about technology and culture, not
the political scene, displays the ability to see that elections and social media are a
toxic mix. He’s not just referring to Facebook and Twitter but also Instagram,
Snapchat and YouTube.
innate advantage in Election 2016. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton flounders
online because she “spent years filing the burrs off her personality, only to
find that rough edges are in.”
“The presidential campaign is becoming just another
social-media stream, its swift and shallow current intertwining with all the
other streams that flow through people’s (digital) devices. This shift is
changing the way politicians communicate with voters, altering the tone and
content of political speech. But it’s doing more than that. It’s changing what
the country wants and expects from its would-be leaders.
personality. But, as the Trump phenomenon reveals, it’s only a particular kind
of personality that works — one that’s big enough to grab the attention of the
perpetually distracted but small enough to fit neatly into a thousand tiny
media containers. It might best be described as a Snapchat personality. It
bursts into focus at regular intervals without ever demanding steady
concentration.
cutting over the considered. It also prizes emotionalism over reason. The more
visceral the message, the more quickly it circulates and the longer it holds
the darting public eye.”
Hi again, Chad. Here's a related topic you might want to write about. The internet has led to an explosion of news sources with many of them deliberately slanting coverage right or left. So nowadays liberals get their news from liberal sources and conservatives get news from conservative sources. Not only are they not getting the whole picture, but they can't even have straight up political arguments because no one gets past impugning the other guy's sources! I touched on that topic in my blog for Gratiot County Republican web site here: http://www.gratiotcountyrepublicanparty.com. But you could flesh it out.