Social media impact on society and trusted conversation

Social media impact on society concerns how social media technologies let virtual communities and networks create, share, and gather content, with many sources reaching many receivers rather than one source reaching many. The lessons answer how public performance and trusted conversation shape what people can understand about social media's effects on connection and trust.

3 articles, 1 book · about 1 hr 58 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   social media impact on society · Wikipedia · 60+ min read

   Social media exchanges involving direct communication and reciprocal messages correlated with less loneliness, according to some researchers. Social media cyborgs, bot-assisted humans or human-assisted bots, serve legitimate and illegitimate purposes, including spreading fake news. In some cases, cyborgs spread fake news. Early social media features on PLATO included Notes, a message forum; TERM-talk, instant messaging; Talkomatic, perhaps the first online chat room; and News Report, a crowdsourced online newspaper. PLATO also had blog and Access Lists, which let owners restrict access to selected users such as friends, classmates, or co-workers.

2. Read
   

   Social Networking 2.0 · Stratechery · 12 min read

   Social media's changing role in friendship: the Fiefdom, a group of Bucks fans who loved to complain about the team, found each other on Twitter. As Twitter grew too noisy, performative, and combative for hanging out, they moved to a group DM that "frankly, sucks," but is their own place.

3. Read
   

   How Social Media Brings Out the Worst in Us · Greater Good Magazine · 10 min read

   The interviewee argues that extreme levels of messaging with lots more people simultaneously overwhelm people's ability to be thoughtful, build empathy, or understand one another, creating misunderstanding and mistrust instead of greater trust. The interviewee says this makes social media a poor tool for building social connection.

4. Book
   

   Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age · Bookshop.org

   Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle explores how digital communication is reshaping relationships and the importance of face-to-face conversation for fostering genuine connections.

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