Admittedly there is some hypocrisy in that I type this response on a social media platform of sorts. But it seems to be increasingly evident that social media in net terms is a negative force for the world, more than it is a positive - the negatives outweigh the positives.
The whole Trump saga and 'Tumpism' phenomenon is but one example on the so called right side of the spectrum. And the on the so called left side - with it's hyperbolised and exaggerated sense of social justice - is the opposite phenomenon.
But here's the crux of the issue. Who thought it a good idea to put every village idiot in the world within instant contact with every other village idiot in the world? Once upon a time, nutters might stand on a corner with a sandwich board shouting incoherent, deranged nonsense. Some people might get a bit agitated by it and dismissively tell the person to shut up. But most would simply shrug their shoulders and move on. With the virtual megaphone of social media, incoherent nonsense that in past eras wouldn't travel beyond idiotic street corner ramblings, now grows millions of legs and dimensions. I take issue too, with Zuckerberg and co picking winners out of the lunatics. As in, they get to pick and choose which incoherent, deranging nonsense gets heard and what doesn't. That said, perhaps some of the social media barons are actually some of the loonies themselves.
