Have "likes" and "kudos" polarized our society?

[Sal]

Are the machines programming us?

Immediately thought of this old comic from SMBC:



https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-12-13

[chimp3]

I disagree that our society is more polarized. We are way more diverse now in our opinions than two extremes. Social media has contributed to this. I do not consider atheist, agnostic atheist, apatheist, deist, Green, anarcho-capitalist libertarian, left- leaning bleeding heart libertarian, log cabin republican, trans, bi, gay, lesbian, polyamorist, or Catholic Lady on an Atheist Forum to be labels of polarization. A bit more kaleidiscopic than that.

[polymath257]

Societies go through cycles of polarization. It would be hard to say that we are more polarized today than we were in 1968, for example.

But the prevalence of social media makes it much easier to be confronted by those differences or, paradoxically, to ignore those differences by only reading things you agree with. So, the bigoted uncle that had little way to communicate his hatred 40 years ago now has a forum where he can not just communicate, but be praised for it.

But insularity has always been widespread. There were those who were surprised when Nixon won the presidency because everyone they knew voted against him.

The machines aren't programming us. We are programming each other. And that is a process that goes back through recorded history.

[energizer bunny]

I pay less and less attention now a days as i know its based more on popularity than quality.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Obviously I'm not the first one with this idea, but is this common social media format part of what's responsible for the divided in our society?

You join a social group, and get addicted to the stimuli of people liking your stuff. Then the more liberal or conservative or atheist or religious or whatever your little niche group is, the more likes you get, which socially engineers your opinions to line up that way also. Hence everybody ends up living in political or religious bubbles because of basically getting stuck in a loop of positive feedback.

The more I've thought about it, I think this is probably the number one reason that our society is so divided right now, people don't even want to venture outside of their normal comfort zone because there are no "likes" to be had for them out there.

Also I've noticed that on here one of the easiest ways to get kudos is attacking someone who co mes in with an opposing opinion.  I'm sure it's the same on every platform. This spills over to real life, you get conditioned to attack opposing opinions.

Are the machines programming us?

Thoughtful replies appreciated.

I thnk we're divided because most people seem to care more about reality-TV-style confrontation than IRL discussion. Argumentative as I can be online, I'm not like this IRL unless I feel that the issue demands intransigence -- and how often is that?

I rarely get kudos for having a go at someone here. Most of mine come when I'm pithy and good-hearted.

TBH, I think it's not "kudos" or likes that empower the cuntbags of the world, but rather the anonymity of the 'Net. I see folks regularly run their mouth in a forum who wouldn't say shit if they had a mouthful in real life. That anonymity is what, I think, builds both divides and echo-chambers.

[Whateverist]

While there are benefits of social media, I don't know that overall, it will be a good thing for society.

(bold mine)

Man, what happened to "God Did it", "It's in God's hands", "God works in mysterious ways" and mst of all, "Free will" ?

Hadn't thought about it that way before, but it makes sense.

Looks like C_L agrees with you, LP.  

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What's interesting about this forum environment, is that there isn't really any practical purpose to want to collect kudos/rep.  There isn't a chance to go viral.  And with such a small community, it's not like someone is going to become famous in any way because they got 10 kudos on a post, or hit 50 rep.  Everybody is a pretty known commodity.

In this specific situation, I think maybe the kudos/rep is a loose reflection of the responses one's posts receives, which is where the echo chamber effect takes place.  So a kudos is a substitute for "I agree with Kevin" rather than posting "I agree with Kevin."  So it serves as shorthand more than anything?  But what it's shorthand for is the stuff about positive feedback.

Quite right.  With the kudos system it keeps the thread length down without all those "I agree" posts.

Now, I still find myself sending out a lot of "Go Fuck Yourself" posts when I disagree. 

Maybe we could have a "Disagree" function?

I wonder if we could get a variety of Kudos like Fb offers.  Perhaps one could show the image of Jesus in a gaseous rectal emission.