poll Do you think social media brings us together or divides us?

[jnelsoninjax]

A majority of Americans say sites like Facebook and Twitter do more to divide the Country than unite it, and spread falsehoods rather than news. What do you think?

[margrave]

Social media has great potential to bring people together. The main problem is humanity. It's not used wisely most often.

 

It's used to push bad agendas, racism, hatred and more.

 

Plus, I may be paranoid, but I think it's also used by governments for spying on citizens under the guise of the being for the greater good.

 

I need a new tin foil hat.... this one's getting a little old.

[jnelsoninjax]

2 hours ago, margrave said:

Social media has great potential to bring people together. The main problem is humanity. It's not used wisely most often.

 

It's used to push bad agendas, racism, hatred and more.

 

Plus, I may be paranoid, but I think it's also used by governments for spying on citizens under the guise of the being for the greater good.

 

I need a new tin foil hat.... this one's getting a little old.

I will agree with you on that! If the random Joe Smith would quit posting about where he hides his money and then posts his alarm code and the fact that he will be gone for a week... I do not use social media except for Twitter, and I post nothing, I refuse to get a Facebook account simply because I have no reason that I can see that I would need one.

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

Voted, divides us. I'm on vacation, on my smartphone, so I'm currently too lazy to elaborate.

[Buttus]

it brings like-minded people together.

 

i don't see how it divides people any more than a fishing club divides people apart from a knitting club, or whatever along those lines...

 

sure there's groups that spout ignorance and hatred toward certain people, but only those people that like that stuff go there, like a fishing club

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

It does both. It brings us closer to what we relate to, and further away from what we don't like, which is why so many things are polarized from sheer over exposure.

 

Though it does also open us up to new experiences that we can relate to or oppose. The real change is the doing away with traditional channels, like the literal channels of TV that were all a generation or two were solely regularly exposed to. We are now more free to find our own entertainment, which does amplify the echochamber, but also makes us far more independent than when we could only get news from a few sources. This even exists in music. There is less of a "counter culture" like we saw in the previous generations since there is less of a "mainstream" to oppose, since there are no monolithic radio stations we are forced to listen to.

 

Edit; As a background, that all started with the introduction of cable tv and the 24 hour news cycle. The Internet just made it instant and interactive.

[Ms Twit Who]

Well I think if there is good healthy communication using These tools, things can be interesting and bridging to  individuals,  however I think these same portals enable the choice to be negative also , therefore without any doubt, assistance to these negative foundations of social media, outweigh the progress or process of sincerity and care to each other in our world.

 

 

[+Warwagon MVC]

I think it would mostly bring us together, but a lot of people these days are a bunch of ******* and get offended so easily. I want to go back to the 90's.

[cork1958]

It COULD be a great tool for uniting, but it is almost never used that way. Even people I know that use it mostly like it should be used, go off on some of the dumbest crap I've ever seen or heard.

 

Unfortunately, I tried it out myself last year, which I should've known better than to do, and only had like 8 friends on there. Didn't want to over do that as I was just testing what stupidity I'd see! Saw enough that I deleted my account after about 3 months!

 

In case you couldn't tell, my vote is divides us