The New Political Social Platforms

In an era of immediate gratification, and the need for the here and now, most people like to be in the know, (or at least think that they are). News is right at our finger tips since carry on devices have invaded the population in masses. Since anyone can create a website or operate a news feed how credible is the news?

We see clips from government officials blasting the news media as corrupt and incoherent posses with evil agendas threatening to put an end to society as we have come to know it. There are rampages from some of the highest offices in our nation carried out over Twitter. News videos highlighting some new scandal could easily replace televised soap operas and reality shows. We just can’t wait to see what will happen next!

Our elected officials seem to think social media is for combat. Then there is fake news, and real fake news or is it just the fake news that is fake? Perhaps, our government defines fake news differently than the term might be interpreted by Twitter users. Who knows? We just don’t need all the drama

So, my question is what is the actuality? Are we really living in a time when accepting truth as lies and lies as truth is normal? Orson Welles, (2018) apparently taught society nothing when he made the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. As people tuned into the show, it was so realistic people panicked. They thought the planet was being taken by aliens as the work of fiction played out over the radio.

Who are we to believe? There are allegations that a foreign nation interfered with the very basic structure of the democratic process and used social media to accomplish the task, (DOJ, 2018). We currently have a special prosecutor investigating possible collusion between a seated President and a foreign entity. There were some 126 million people that were reached by fake Russian Facebook accounts during the election process, (The Guardian, 2017) and you can click here to see if you interacted with one of these fake accounts during the 2016 election. There is even a television program called Catfish, that deals tracks social media accounts and the people connected to them to determine if they are real or if the love interest with the suspicious digital romance is being Catfished, (a new word in the dictionary).

People seem to be losing their ability to interact with each other in person. Why bother calling to talk when you can check Facebook or send an instant message. A visit to a local grocery store reaffirmed my observation this week. I thought there must be a new holiday that I was unaware of called rude and uncouth day.

I think there is an argument with evidence that social media is slowly dumbing down our society. Not necessarily taking away intelligence, but creating a world where fact checking just does not happen. Cyberbullying occurs only because no one is willing to step forward and tell the truth in many cases. Simple fact checking and speaking up could save a young person’s life. The sad reality is that most of the time that doesn’t happen.

Back to the political side of this post. We have learned that Tweeting is one of the coolest past times that ever existed. Being truthful, seems to be a thing of the past and hang on until tomorrow when the next episode of As Our Government Churns presents an even more unbelievable occurrence than those we have seen thus far. Why can’t we just talk about the aliens that don’t exist?

Department of Justice, (2018) Case 1:18-cr-00032-DLF Document 1 Filed 02/16/18. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download  on May 4, 2018.

The Guardian, (2017) Russia-backed Facebook posts 'reached 126m Americans' during US election. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/30/facebook-russia-fake-accounts-126-million  on May 4, 2018.

History.com, (2018) This Day in History, Welles Scares Nation. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/welles-scares-nation   on May 3, 2018.