Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

Click the link above to read the full article.

The author of this article is Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of Business. He has written books and extensively on the social network phenomenon. Check out more about him here. The full article is long form and provides great insights on the rapid growth of popularity of Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Jonathan attempts to view the topic of social media and how it has become such a large part of our lives from both political sides in this article. The article is American, but I think it can apply to us here in Canada as well.

The past 2 years, in and out of lockdowns and working from home, it is fair to say that the use of social media for most people has risen. Access to information is at an all time high. How do we decipher the good information from the bad information, the right information from the wrong. It all becomes a bit overwhelming for the "exhausted majority" as he mentions in the article. Some do a better job than others avoiding the pitfalls of social media.

I have taken several quotes from the article in an attempt to summarize his thoughts and themes.

We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.

This quote rings true, especially of the last 2 years or so. There has become a disconnect from human, social interaction that connects us.

Social scientists have identified at least three major forces that collectively bind together successful democracies: social capital (extensive social networks with high levels of trust), strong institutions, and shared stories. Social media has weakened all three.

Later research showed that posts that trigger emotions––especially anger at out groups––are the most likely to be shared.

It’s not just the waste of time and scarce attention that matters; it’s the continual chipping-away of trust. But when citizens lose trust in elected leaders, health authorities, the courts, the police, universities, and the integrity of elections, then every decision becomes contested; every election becomes a life-and-death struggle to save the country from the other side.

The world has become very polarizing. Every event more intense and extreme.

He noted that distributed networks “can protest and overthrow, but never govern.” He described the nihilism of the many protest movements of 2011 that organized mostly online and that, like Occupy Wall Street, demanded the destruction of existing institutions without offering an alternative vision of the future or an organization that could bring it about.

Having a plan to solve the problem is a key to change.

Across eight studies, Bor and Petersen found that being online did not make most people more aggressive or hostile; rather, it allowed a small number of aggressive people to attack a much larger set of victims. The “Hidden Tribes” study, by the pro-democracy group More in Common, surveyed 8,000 Americans in 2017 and 2018 and identified seven groups that shared beliefs and behaviors. The one furthest to the right, known as the “devoted conservatives,” comprised 6 percent of the U.S. population. The group furthest to the left, the “progressive activists,” comprised 8 percent of the population. The progressive activists were by far the most prolific group on social media: 70 percent had shared political content over the previous year. The devoted conservatives followed, at 56 percent.

Another good quote at the end of the article on this. As the world re-opens and we get out again, seeing friends and family for dinner, running into fellow fans at a sports game, you really feel that sense of community and togetherness that has been missing. The majority of people are not part of the extreme ends of the spectrum that seem to be the loudest on social media.

The most pervasive obstacle to good thinking is confirmation bias, which refers to the human tendency to search only for evidence that confirms our preferred beliefs. The most reliable cure for confirmation bias is interaction with people who don’t share your beliefs. People who think differently and are willing to speak up if they disagree with you make you smarter, almost as if they are extensions of your own brain. People who try to silence or intimidate their critics make themselves stupider, almost as if they are shooting darts into their own brain.

We posted a great quote awhile ago from Ray Dalio, "Appreciate the art of thoughtful disagreement. In thoughtful disagreement your goal is not to convince the other party that you are right -- it is to find out which view is true and decide what to do about it".

But the main problem with social media is not that some people post fake or toxic stuff; it’s that fake and outrage-inducing content can now attain a level of reach and influence that was not possible before 2009. Perhaps the biggest single change that would reduce the toxicity of existing platforms would be user verification as a precondition for gaining the algorithmic amplification that social media offers

Having a user verification process provides another layer of accountability that is missing on Twitter, Instagram, etc. When people believe they are anonymous, they may post or say things they otherwise would not.

Childhood has become more tightly circumscribed in recent generations––with less opportunity for free, unstructured play; less unsupervised time outside; more time online. Whatever else the effects of these shifts, they have likely impeded the development of abilities needed for effective self-governance for many young adults. Unsupervised free play is nature’s way of teaching young mammals the skills they’ll need as adults, which for humans include the ability to cooperate, make and enforce rules, compromise, adjudicate conflicts, and accept defeat.

The old story of jumping on your bike and going to the park to play with your friends until Mom called you home for dinner or the sun went down is no longer. This is one of the most difficult things for young adults and children finding a better balance between being online in a world where it seems you need to be as well as playing outside and learning those important lifelong skills.

Yet when we look away from our dysfunctional federal government, disconnect from social media, and talk with our neighbors directly, things seem more hopeful.

Not to say the government is dysfunctional or not, but having been out a few times as the world has re-opened, it has renewed our hope that if we disconnect and spend more time with neighbors, community, friends and family things will be just fine.

The article linked and mentioned above was posted on April 11, 2022 and written by Jonathan Haidt through The Atlantic. You can find The Atlantic online here and directly to Jonathan Haidt's contributions here.