Facebook's outrage culture is killing Facebook

Facebook's outrage culture is killing Facebook

Social media in the age of Trump presents us with two opposite dangers: a quantum increase in our political anxiety, and a gradual numbing of our political attention. …. Now the dark side of Facebook and so many other online communities is the relentless diet of online rage and political panic.
Every re-post is a new call to arms, a new case for upheaval, a moment of mutiny. Calls for revolution are ubiquitous….
No doubt America’s army of therapists will soon be called in to treat our nation’s latest ailment: Trump Social Media Syndrome. The question is: If this new form of political paranoia is a sickness, what is the cure?
Abstinence is one idea: just stop using Facebook at all. Turn it off.

Source: Is There a Cure for Trump Social Media Syndrome? – Acculturated
Earlier this week, I logged into Facebook for the first time in 2 weeks.
Two nights ago, the shouting crossed my threshold and I mass unfollowed “friends” whose perpetual and continuous outrage is off scale.  A friend announced she is deleting her Facebook account in a few days and leaving social media with hints this is because of outrage.
I want to continue using valuable, non-confrontational and supportive groups (notably photography and special interests like hovercraft) – but without having to traverse a Facebook news feed filled with anger, hate and screaming.
Facebook has turned into a culture of perpetual outrage, whose screaming and anger is a turn off. This culture threatens Facebook’s existence as many of us stop logging in while others give up and leave Facebook for good.
Facebook may suffocate and die beneath the tsunami of propaganda posts that are becoming predominant.
This problem is impacting Twitter too – even though I try to follow mostly technology topics, my feed is, at times, 20-25% political propaganda. Twitter has suffered 10 quarters in a row of progressively lower revenue and many think it might die off as it continuously tries new – but unsuccessful – approaches to revenue generation amid stunted user growth.
Social media is choking on its user’s verbal vomit.

Comments are closed.