A variant on this theme links the ad-driven business model of social media platforms to an inherently pathological distortion of the information environment: as one pundit wrote, "YouTube leads viewers down a rabbit hole of extremism, while Google racks up the ad sales." A facile blend of pop psychology and pop economics equates social media engagement to a dopamine shot for the user and increasing ad revenue for the platform.
Russia-sponsored social media use during the 2016 election provides yet another example of the moral panic around social media and the avalanche of bitter exaggeration that goes with it.
Cybersecurity writer Thomas Rid made the astounding assertion that the most "Open and liberal social media platform" is "a threat to open and liberal democracy" precisely because it is open and liberal, thus implying that free expression is a national security threat.
Media studies professor Kirsten Drotner wrote, "[E]very time a new mass medium has entered the social scene, it has spurred public debates on social and cultural norms, debates that serve to reflect, negotiate and possibly revise these very norms In some cases, debate of a new medium brings about - indeed changes into - heated, emotional reactions what may be defined as a media panic.
" We need to understand that we are in the midst of one of these renegotiations of the norms of public discourse and that the process has tipped over into media panic - one that demonizes social media generically.
A recent exchange on Twitter exposed the policy vacuity of those leading the social media moral panic.
What stance should advocates of both free expression and free markets take with respect to social media?
https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/challenging-social-media-moral-panic-preserving-free-expression-under
Russia-sponsored social media use during the 2016 election provides yet another example of the moral panic around social media and the avalanche of bitter exaggeration that goes with it.
Cybersecurity writer Thomas Rid made the astounding assertion that the most "Open and liberal social media platform" is "a threat to open and liberal democracy" precisely because it is open and liberal, thus implying that free expression is a national security threat.
Media studies professor Kirsten Drotner wrote, "[E]very time a new mass medium has entered the social scene, it has spurred public debates on social and cultural norms, debates that serve to reflect, negotiate and possibly revise these very norms In some cases, debate of a new medium brings about - indeed changes into - heated, emotional reactions what may be defined as a media panic.
" We need to understand that we are in the midst of one of these renegotiations of the norms of public discourse and that the process has tipped over into media panic - one that demonizes social media generically.
A recent exchange on Twitter exposed the policy vacuity of those leading the social media moral panic.
What stance should advocates of both free expression and free markets take with respect to social media?
https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/challenging-social-media-moral-panic-preserving-free-expression-under
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