Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell writing in The Atlantic:
Madison’s design has proved durable. But what would happen to American democracy if, one day in the early 21st century, a technology appeared that—over the course of a decade—changed several fundamental parameters of social and political life? What if this technology greatly increased the amount of “mutual animosity” and the speed at which outrage spread? Might we witness the political equivalent of buildings collapsing, birds falling from the sky, and the Earth moving closer to the sun?
I find the authors’ argument compelling: social media has changed the nature of discourse in democratic societies. It’s not a content problem, but a structural issue driven by our intrinsic want for attention.
Can we recover? Perhaps — but change will require major structural interventions. The article suggests three that seem worthwhile. (Alas, no mention of the nefarious business model driving the major social networks: selling the attention of their users.)