The Alternate Reality of Social Media

Michael Hedges April 14, 2014 - Follow on Twitter

As the internet became the agent for speedy delivery of news and information those less speedy entered an existential crisis. People would wait no longer for the newspaper to hit the doorstep or the evening TV news programs appointed hour. And why should they? People now accept that all the news they need can be consumed in real time. This is not the only transformation.

The internet has given people delirious access to all sorts of news and information, now referred to commonly as content. And consumers became producers, set up a personal website or blog and publish in seconds. In a blink social media eclipsed that phase and billions now share their every thought, neatly aggregated, ads automatically affixed.

Social media – Facebook, Twitter and more – have become news sources, in the most generous definition. And the absolute wealth of it all, from news portals to YouTube, gives people access to exactly what they want whenever they want it. The “collective intelligence” is, then, the most powerful source.

Well, maybe not. Last year a team of university researchers from Italy, France and the US poured over data from more than two million Italian Facebook users looking for relationships among “information assets, public debate and social perception.”  Information goes viral on the Web not because of truth and reality but, rather, “a certain narrative of the world, very often oversimplification,” explained lead researcher Walter Quattrociocchi, posted on Italian press freedom portal lsdi.it (April 9).

Social media, he said, “verifies and substantiates” for its users news and information unfettered by veracity. “Constant dissemination of information, more or less verified and often created directly by users, has definitely changed the mechanism of content selection, which is now low. Even the mainstream media are using this type of selection and the quality of the debate is highly influenced by the lack of knowledge, (which is seen in) the proliferation of television programs conveying extreme positions, poorly documented.”

All that “collective intelligence” on the Web, generally, and social media, specifically, appears like “grass-roots political organization or something.” Web trolls, organized or not, spread “hoaxes” that “the less attentive” seeking “alternative information” take as fact. “In our experience,” he continued”, trolls…should not be construed as paid by someone to mislead the public.”

Web trolls, he seems to say, are like comedians. “People are often weary of the continued polarization of every issue. Instead of creating more resistance to debates social media, in a surreal manner, turns the extreme positions into parody.”

The weight of information and its tempo are taxing for the mind. Information comes in bits, fragments that become playthings at the mercy of what Quattrociocchi calls narcissistic delirium. “These tiny pieces of information create myths as a substitute for reality.”

Taking fragments of information, splicing and discarding, to create fantasy – or appeal to it - is not new to the media sphere. Celebrity magazines made fantasy a consumer habit. It’s entertaining. Social media is the place for even more invention. Generation Selfie – certainly not age or location specific – loves the attention. It’s creative. It isn’t news.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Social Media Matures (...maybe...)

Hundreds of millions use social media. It has spawned revolutions, excited investors and confounded traditional media. With all that attention a business model remains unclear or it's simply so different many can't see it. What is clear is that there's no turning back. 68 pages, PDF (February 2013)

Order here