“Why Twitter Sometimes Rewards What Most People Disapprove of: The Case of Cross-Party Political Relations” — Most Americans say they disapprove of polarizing content, but Twitters most active users are more politically extreme than most
https://www.theamericansaga.com/p/never-forget-twitter-isnt-real-life
6 Comments
Good parts:
>Part of the answer, Heltzel suggested, was that the people who are driving political conversations on Twitter aren’t representative of the broader public. Their study found that the “frequent reactors” — people who spend a lot of time interacting with Tweets — are more politically extreme than other people.
>Social media has turned every publication in America into a town hall meeting with the same five people showing up every Wednesday to yell at their least favored commissioner.
>No, there are interesting people to meet and useful bits of information you can gather from social media. But the general public and the people who drive discussion on a platform like Twitter are entirely different.
Bad part:
>When someone angrily denounces me, I have to remember that this is someone who is obsessed with politics, feeds off of negativity, and probably doesn’t act this way in real life (where you’re not rewarded in the same way for being a jerk).
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>It’s a lesson I hope everyone can remember. Because if we start living in the fiction that Twitter is actually real life, it could one day become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Makes sense. Normal people have a wide range of interests. Modern day equivalent of the cadre who would spend their time writing to the editor
Everyone says they hate “polarizing content” then consume it non-stop. It’s like how people say “McDonalds Sucks!” but MCd’s is consistently packed with people.
Even if they don’t admit it, Twitter thrives from people flaming and fighting in posts where others don’t share your opinion.
Most notable in politics, a diehard Rep or Dem will defend their party until he’s blocked or his phone runs out of battery
Makes sense. I hate Twitter’s extremism and shoutiness. Yet I still tend to agree with tweets of that nature if I agree with it in principle.
Me recognizing that Twitter only shows the most extreme voices and wishing the platform didn’t exist is different from Twitter not having an influence despite of it.
It wasn’t always this extreme and to say it was is just bad faith. The last 2 years are nothing like the prior 10, even in name.