Midpack
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
A good article on something I've noted a few times lately. I was convinced the internet would bring us all together, but it hasn't worked out that way in my experience. And the author notes a cure, but it's so much against the grain I doubt many people would have the will if they were aware of how siloed many of us have become. Overall, people are more emboldened by their views, and more likely to lash out against others than ever?
How the Internet divides us - Barry Carter
How the Internet divides us - Barry Carter
The great promise of the Internet is that it would bring us all together, that it would do away with all the things that divide us and expose us to new ways of thinking. In the early days it was such a novelty to speak to someone and ask them questions knowing that their life was completely different to yours. The Internet promised an end to tribalism and to bring us all together.
The Internet has fulfilled some of these promises and done countless wonderful things in addition. However, the way we use parts of the Internet has actually done the opposite, most notably social media. Rather than use it to meet new people, increasingly we use it to meet people just like us. If you have an interest in animal rights, you are going to see more news and conversations about animal rights on your online portals. If you are a Star Trek enthusiast, you will think that the whole world shares your passion.
We might not gravitate towards those who are near or related to us anymore, but we do gravitate towards people who agree with us, and shun those who don’t. Websites like Facebook have exposed us to the deep political views of our extended families and acquaintances in a way we never were before. The perceived safety of online discourse has done away with the important give and take of polite discourse. The combination of the two means we are either falling out with or ignoring those who do not match up with us perfectly.
This is not a new thing. This is a digital form of ingroup preference, an evolutionary driver in all of us to favor those in our ‘group’ at the expense of those who are not.
It’s not hostility towards other people, its love for one’s own group. This is, however, also the thing that does bring out hatred towards others.
The Internet has allowed us to move away from the traditional ingroup and outgroup bias away from our immediate peer group and towards groups based on interests and ideologies. We now live in a time where we can identify more with someone a thousand miles away because of a video game that we both like, rather than our immediate neighbors and family who arguably have much more say in our day-to-day lives.
It’s a wonderful thing that in 2016 we can take such an active interest in so many things and meet people who share our interests. Having ingroup preference is an evolutionary necessity to feel part of something bigger than ourselves. The problem is that we are in danger of losing something along the way. We are in danger of losing those serendipitous encounters that lead to new and exciting experiences, because it is so much easier to tread the path we already know.
The bigger danger is that we are heading towards a form of ghettoisation of opinion and groupthink. We are losing empathy for people who have different views from us because it is so easy to avoid difference of opinion.
To quote FIRE lawyer Greg Lukianoff (as I often do), who was speaking about viewpoint diversity : “If you’re intellectual you should consider it a duty to seek out smart people with whom you disagree. We could do a lot to combat this trend.”
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