Social Media is a failed experiment

Yet, even in the face of this aberrant behaviour, we fall into the same normalizing trap, the same failure of the imagination that, time and again, has proved so conducive to Mr. Trump’s designs. And so we make excuses for him, in spite of ourselves: He can’t mean it. He’s not really trying to overturn the election. He’s just in denial. Or else it’s some kind of dodge.

No "we" don't make excuses for him. That is entirely on the heads of the right wing media and press. 

I can't be bothered to read the whole article, but I'd appreciate knowing whether the author presents a concrete plan for the abolition of this "failed experiment", because it sure hasn't failed as far as the capitalist markets are concerned. Any moves to even bureaucratically regulate large social networks in the way broadcasters were once regulated, would be rejected by all Republicans and most Democratic office holders as communistic and unAmerican. Plus a job killer, to boot. Nope, oped writers can whine forever, nothing bad is going to happen to fb, twitter, et al as long as capital rules.

Should have added -- the bad thing that can happen to social media under capitalism is currently happening, which is an opaque censorship of dissident opinion by elite politically connected technocrats, and this being cheered on by liberal authoritarians at the globe and mail and here at babble:

"Unfortunately humans are just too stupid to be given access to some things. Guns, Social Media"

I do too. Maybe members of the NDP could propose this kind of policy at their next federal convention? 

Actually it asseses it as a 'failed experiment'. As for whether this one is, I guess that's an open question.

I stand corrected about the article simply being a statement that social media is a failed experiment.  The question remains...what then do we do?  It's impossible to organize political movements anymore without social media-we simply don't have the capacity to communicate one-to-one, in-person, with enough people in a fast enough time to organize anything.   

If we simply declare social media a failure, what the hell else do we have?

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Read the Terms and Condition of social media sites:  walled gardens.  The content I post does not belong to me.  The content I post can be censored (removed, shut down, whatever you want to call it.)  The content I post can be modified.  The content on social media is mined, and then other content is pushed at specific people and audiences based on data gathering by the social media site and other data warehouses - and, to take it further: specific content is delivered based on how much a client is willing to pay to target specific audiences. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica as an example.

On the other hand, who is bothering to pay for old media? Quality journalism? According to who? And for what purpose?  The lies are the same.

There are still a few corners of the internet to post comments.  Babble might be a failure, but I can still post comments here!

There are other platforms but they are not encouraged to the exteme that joining popular social media sites is encouraged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Scuttlebutt

https://www.torproject.org/

https://joinmastodon.org/

That isn't the fault of twitter.  It's a cop out to blame social media.  I'm not into history but I'm pretty sure it isn't the first time a populist has risen to power on lies and disinformation. People were not better informed when the only news they got came through newspapers and TV. 

If the far right is more persuasive than the far left it isn't because of social media. It is the fault of the left for failing to listen to the concerns of the demographic that gets won over by the right. 

Did you read the title of this thread? 

I found the twitter post interesting, a concise explanation that has a lot of truth to it IMO.  Especially this:

"Most seem to agree the current public vulnerability to misinformation stems from a series of material and psychological deprivations combined with the sudden democratization of information. Too many want to hinder the latter rather than solving the former."

I am curious how the author would describe the material and psychological deprivations.   Material deprivations are pretty easy to agree on, but not clear what the psycholoigcal deprivations referenced are, beyond the obvious (community, autonomy).   Or what causes them.

ETA -- I suppose once could assume the psychological deprivations are a result of capitalism, or empire, or both, but that line of analysis has always felt a little pithy to me.

It took the negative consequences caused by World War I, the Versailles Treaty, and the Great Depression to elevate Hitler to power. All it took for Trump to rise to power was Trump's preposterous Twitter campaign that claimed that the presidency of the US's first African American President was illegal because President Obama was in reality a secret Muslim born in Kenya. 

Whatever came of the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails that the FBI announced shortly before Election Day and cost her the 2016 election and gave the world four  "deplorable" years of Donald J. Trump as the worst president in American history?

The ability of the US Republican Party to control US politics through propaganda has created a dangerous world for Americans and the rest of us. I think the US and world would be infinitely better off if the US Democratic Party were free to reorder the US unhindered by the US Republican Party. The US political system structurally favours the Republicans to the grave detriment of the whole world. American evangelicals may end up destroying us all via there denial of basic science and reality. As it turns out, science and reality are no match for modern day propaganda.

Social media hasn't hurt democracy at all. Neither have books. Republicans and Democrats are directly responsible for destroying democracy. 

Please name me the era and the politicians in your lifetime that were not doing it in Canada.

  I should have said, trying to destroy democracy. Democracy is not threatened in either place. Citizens have all the power we need to make radical change. We are collectively choosing not to. 

Tell me have you heard of Citizens United. There is no democracy with unlimited campaign spending by the plutocracy.

https://www.citizen.org/article/the-supreme-court-ruling/

Oblivious, fascist-friendly North Report is consistent only in the relentless advocacy of censorship and prosecution anything s/he doesn't like at the moment, regardless of factuality: