Connectivity is sometimes not a Good Thing
While watching the presidential debate this past Saturday, I was painfully reminded of the polarization of American society and the driving factors behind it, specifically social media. This got me thinking about how social media reflects our society today and whether or not the advent of the internet has had a positive effect on the dissemination of information in our society, specifically in the context of politics. Are citizens of the United States and other countries more informed today than in the past? A quick glance at the graph seen in class on Friday illustrating links between pages would suggest yes. However, upon closer inspection of patterns in political discourse on social media both here and abroad, especially in times of political transition, it becomes clear that the internet is simply an echo chamber which gives political factions what they want: a platform and a very convenient and loud megaphone. Therefore, connectivity does not imply unity.
This pattern is best observed in the social media sphere. Around the world, social media is a vehicle for the disruption of power, as is specifically evidenced by the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. In an October 7th op-ed in The Washington Post, Sean Aday and Marc Lynch of George Washington University along with Dean Freelon of American University explained their research laying out an interesting portrait of Egyptian society as reflected by social media during the period from the time of Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow in February, 2011 to the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi in July, 2013.
According to Aday, Lynch, and Freelon, transition is an inherently divisive time. Although an analysis of retweets during the early part of this period showed initial unity among the online public behind the protest movement seeking the ouster of President Mubarak, as time went on, factionalism became apparent among Egyptian users of Twitter and Facebook. Notable factions that emerged from the chaos include Islamists, an activist class, and what he authors referred to as the “Couch Party.” According to the authors, after the onset of factionalism, social media became infused with the undercurrents of polarization of the public, dehumanization of political opponents, and panic regarding the loss of political power by certain factions. Factionalism became apparent in the clustering of Egyptian social media users into the above-mentioned classes. The authors noted that this clustering phenomenon had a particular impact on the spread of fear through the community of Egyptian social media users. Upsetting images and information traveled quickly through close-nit groups of similar-minded members of particular factions. Often, this type of information would not reach those outside of a given faction, leading to a clear information asymmetry among the stakeholders of the revolution. This is clearly demonstrated by the uptick in the number of words expressing fear present in the tweets of Islamists and political activists at key moments such as the eventual military coup which unseated president Morsi. Further, the authors noted that information received by the English-speaking world was also subject to this type of bias, with those disseminating the information on the international stage comprising another cluster in this landscape of factionalism.
Reflecting upon this research, it seems appropriate to conclude that a view of the internet and social media as a force for good in the world based solely on the sheer degree of connectivity between modern internet users is naive at best. From the turbulent storm of the transition in Egyptian politics it is clear that information flow on the internet is impeded by human biases. In a democratic society this raises concerning questions about the ability of factions to put aside biases and unify around the common good. Ultimately, information is interpreted by humans who harbor their own biases and fears. Therefore, the internet is in reality an echo chamber which allows activists and factions to bring their interpretation of reality to an ever-larger audience.
Sources:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1rqeYJSjqQDUjdKaC05WXVCXzA/view