Reading stuff like this is incredibly tough, yet so important to understand. Here is my attempt to delineate what happens by using some quotes from the text.
"Cooped up inside her home and losing work due to the pandemic in the
weeks before her outburst, Rein Lively filled the time she would've spent hanging out with friends and emailing clients by diving down
conspiracy-fueled rabbit holes on Facebook and Instagram, worsening her feelings of isolation and fear."
There is this inherent need in all of us to feel connected with others... however, the rage-fueled machines that social media platforms are... we are driven to see humanity at its worst; not its best. Due to the engagement metrics, that social media derives its worth from. The idea is the longer you are on the platform, the more ads they can cater to you, ensuring a good payday from advertisers directly to these platforms.
Hence, the unfortunate growth of the statement 'doomscroll' as unfortunately we don't have the experience of 'joyscrolling' on these platforms. The reason being, is that when we are fearful, we are more than likely to act compulsively and grab our smartphones sharing this rather messed up news with someone else.. asking them can you believe this?!?
"The algorithm leads you to some weird groups, and I would say I'm in
some weird groups that are really just looking for something hopeful."
With the decline in civic participation, religion, work in-person, school... people are in a desperate state for connection. So anyone, that shows an ounce of interest in the things we care about we are bound to try and engage them... especially when mediated by screens, which makes connecting much easier. .Versus meeting and joining an in-person group that has 10,000+ members, not that we can anyway due to the pandemic. But even before the pandemic, there were these trends.
I highly suggest reading Robert Putnam's work on "Bowling Alone" a phenomenal read from 2000 describing the decline in American Community.
DiResta said that the point of these outbursts can be for attention,
money, or both, but ultimately "they're performing for the audience at
home," not the people at the supermarket or the town meeting.
As we continue to have more of an influence in our offline lives predicated by our online information ecologies; stranger and stranger things seem to be occurring. We are at a new stage of hunter-gatherering, and that if we aren't food deprived we are information-deprived. And we want to be the first to uncover something, to share it with others. To the point that it no longer matters for the person in reality that you are berating about having to wear a mask; instead it is for the feedback loop online: a like, a retweet, a supportive comment.
Online communities are great but they are also having real-world implications. How do we re-create a new wave of offline communities? Or are we too far past this point?
"I believe that we actually are living amidst another pandemic — a trauma pandemic," Foley Martinez said.
In a QAnon world, where those enforcing mask mandates are perceived as part of a movement that includes Satanic child sacrifices, that good-versus-evil narrative can provide a strange sort of comfort.
"This is what it's like to be an essential worker." Chavez said she and her colleagues are regularly berated by customers who refuse to wear masks
It is pretty unpleasant trying to enforce mask-wearing at my place of employment. I’m sick of being abused by anti-maskers, it’s a large part of why I gave my two-weeks notice last Friday.
Reading stuff like this is incredibly tough, yet so important to understand. Here is my attempt to delineate what happens by using some quotes from the text.
There is this inherent need in all of us to feel connected with others... however, the rage-fueled machines that social media platforms are... we are driven to see humanity at its worst; not its best. Due to the engagement metrics, that social media derives its worth from. The idea is the longer you are on the platform, the more ads they can cater to you, ensuring a good payday from advertisers directly to these platforms.
Hence, the unfortunate growth of the statement 'doomscroll' as unfortunately we don't have the experience of 'joyscrolling' on these platforms. The reason being, is that when we are fearful, we are more than likely to act compulsively and grab our smartphones sharing this rather messed up news with someone else.. asking them can you believe this?!?
With the decline in civic participation, religion, work in-person, school... people are in a desperate state for connection. So anyone, that shows an ounce of interest in the things we care about we are bound to try and engage them... especially when mediated by screens, which makes connecting much easier. .Versus meeting and joining an in-person group that has 10,000+ members, not that we can anyway due to the pandemic. But even before the pandemic, there were these trends.
I highly suggest reading Robert Putnam's work on "Bowling Alone" a phenomenal read from 2000 describing the decline in American Community.
As we continue to have more of an influence in our offline lives predicated by our online information ecologies; stranger and stranger things seem to be occurring. We are at a new stage of hunter-gatherering, and that if we aren't food deprived we are information-deprived. And we want to be the first to uncover something, to share it with others. To the point that it no longer matters for the person in reality that you are berating about having to wear a mask; instead it is for the feedback loop online: a like, a retweet, a supportive comment.
Online communities are great but they are also having real-world implications. How do we re-create a new wave of offline communities? Or are we too far past this point?
It is pretty unpleasant trying to enforce mask-wearing at my place of employment. I’m sick of being abused by anti-maskers, it’s a large part of why I gave my two-weeks notice last Friday.