"Here
is what [Ghonim] concluded about social media today: 'First, we don’t know
how to deal with rumors. Rumors that confirm people’s biases are now
believed and spread among millions of people.' Second, 'We tend to only
communicate with people that we agree with, and thanks to social media,
we can mute, un-follow and block everybody else. Third, online
discussions quickly descend into angry mobs. … It’s as if we forget that
the people behind screens are actually real people and not just
avatars.'
'And
fourth, it became really hard to change our opinions. Because of the
speed and brevity of social media, we are forced to jump to conclusions
and write sharp opinions in 140 characters about complex world affairs.
And once we do that, it lives forever on the Internet.'
Fifth,
and most crucial, he said, “today, our social media experiences are
designed in a way that favors broadcasting over engagements, posts over
discussions, shallow comments over deep conversations. … It’s as if we
agreed that we are here to talk at each other instead of talking with
each other.'”
I think the lesson is that if you have 1 simple goal, social media can help you reach that. If you have a complex goal, like turning a country from dictator to democracy, that is where things break down.
I do agree with all that you mention here, about social media and their function or role. To me, it seems that the separation of mind, with eyes on the screen and the attention present in what's on that screen, with a sense of physicality, is key to losing respect for fellow human beings online. For when the sense of body, hence... emotional awareness accompanied by self-reflection is absent, anything goes. It's the instinctual reactions that are ruling internet activities in Social Media, that's evident. Many online activists are lonely, depressed and alienated from the world of blood, sweat and tears, in a life of lethargy, laziness, depression and even by using drugs and alcohol. The anonimity of a presence at home, without company, creates wanderers that are lost. I've witnessed, mainly in fora with spiritual and ethical discussions, fierce endless rants and airy fairy pink clouds of unrealistic projections, imaginations that almost begin to have a life of their own, in that virtual world. To me, it's one of the challenges of our time, to overcome the addiction to that state. A state wherein such a participant is at a complete loss of its sovereignty.
“Make America Great Again” has been a Trump motto even during his first run for the presidency in 2015. It's not new (Reagan used it, for instance), but it does bring up a question: when was America great, according to Trump? Where does his backward look land in history? If you ask MAGA believers, you get many different answers and views on this. Trump himself has helpfully answered this at least to a degree. Trump told the New York Times when asked when America's power was greatest: "No if you really look at it, it was the turn of the century, that’s when we were a great, when we were really starting to go robust . But if you look back, it really was, there was a period of time when we were developing at the turn of the century which was a pretty wild time for this country and pretty wild in terms of building that machine, that machine was really based on entrepreneurship etc, etc.” At a rally in Phoenix, Trump said “President McKinley made our country very rich...
Donald Trump is no longer even doing his job as president. He spends 20% of his time golfing. He holds fundraisers for himself, using his official position to reward acolytes. He skips most of the daily intelligence briefings to keep him informed [https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/09/trump-intelligence-briefing-frequency-00338946]. When asked questions about what his administration is doing he either says he doesn't know, or refers the questioner to another official. For instance, when asked whether he planned to send migrants to Libya, he responded “I don't know. You'll have to ask the Department of Homeland Security.” Even when asked about the most important aspect of being president, “[D]on’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?” Once again, Trump answered, “I don’t know.” [https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/-dont-know-problem-trump-leaning-new-favorite-phrase-rcna205546] Trump generally skips the daily i...
Comments
emotional awareness accompanied by self-reflection is absent, anything goes. It's the instinctual reactions that are ruling internet activities in Social Media, that's evident. Many online activists are lonely, depressed and alienated from the world of blood, sweat and tears, in a life of lethargy, laziness, depression and even by using drugs and alcohol. The anonimity of a presence at home, without company, creates wanderers that are lost. I've witnessed, mainly in fora with spiritual and ethical discussions, fierce endless rants and airy fairy pink clouds of unrealistic projections, imaginations that almost begin to have a life of their own, in that virtual world. To me, it's one of the challenges of our time, to overcome the addiction to that state. A state wherein such a participant is at a complete loss of its sovereignty.