The Fifth Drug - Social Media as Fifth Estate in State and Society
Fake news spreads six times more than evidence-based facts ("The Social Dilemma" -Netflix). People share negative information ten times more often than positive information and are much more deeply invested in it ("The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships" -Current 2010). This is motivated by our protective instinct.
The reach of any message is easily multiplied by these mechanisms.
Consciously or unconsciously, this influences the context and quality of the content.
Criticism travels further and is more intensely absorbed than praise or positive observations. The more negative and intense, the greater the spread.
Thus, overall moods are created and they are also explicitly generated, which in turn influence opinion formation. Opinion formation can easily be corrupted by a lack of media competence. And those who lack media competence are also more easily corrupted.
And knowing who could take advantage of these opportunities to influence opinion, and how, should be part of media literacy, along with research, analysis, plausibility checks and interpretation.
We need to be (more) aware that the dynamics described above are fueled by obscene gigantic sums of money, armies of highly trained psychologists and marketing experts. They battle for every minute of our lives.
In the software/online and drug milieu, by the way, the addressee is called exactly the same: user.
The Fifth Estate encodes the synapses of social dialogue.
