Social Media is No Place for Intricacies

by Ryan Vosbigian

After reading Saunders’ “The Braindead Megaphone,” I kept reflecting on how the message of the piece applies to social media, which has become one of the main ways that news spreads. As Saunders explains, ideally, those sharing news are experts on the subject matter without any agenda who use clear language to share a carefully thought-out argument. However, the news tends to be the opposite, and, additionally, must be entertaining to be successful. Social media accentuates the issue in both sharing about personal lives and in sharing news.

While many of us use social media to keep in touch and interact with friends and family, the platforms do not lend themselves to thoughtful discussion or sharing ideas. I think this is partly because the audience when posting on social media like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, is typically large, and most people simply do not share deep aspects of their lives with hundreds of people at a time. For instance, I post about a few times a year, typically about some trip or interesting field work with some photos. Social media is simply not conducive to sharing in-depth details of our lives. This is concerning, as social media has now become one of the main ways news spreads.

Like probably many others, I first learned about the riots at Capitol Hill while scrolling through Instagram. Through many of my friends, I hear a range of opinions on movements like BLM and on politics. While it is great that social media provides a platform for people to share their views, the voices and words that are typically propagated and spread rely on heavily on slogans. Thoughtful arguments carefully constructed are sandwiched between someone else’s latest hike or trip to the beach. The creators of social media likely did not originally design for news and ideas to be spread through it. Like the news, social media is designed to be entertaining and to keep people consuming the platform. I finally watched The Social Dilemma last week, and I was surprised by the extent that social media caters to individual consumers to maintain and increase usage. Going back to Saunders’ party, it would be if a Megaphone Guy walked around and held up the megaphone to people for ten seconds for them to state what they think and then quickly moved on to the next. Those well-versed would not have the time to discuss the intricacies of each subject, and there would not be time for response or discussion. It would iterate between people talking about social issues they are passionate about and people talking about their vacation.

I wonder what the solution is to encourage more thoughtful discussion on social media. Perhaps, the answer is that it simply is not designed for sharing ideas and discussion, especially when topics are controversial or require a detailed explanation.