Source: Big Think
- A 2016 Pew Research survey showed that half of political discussion online leaves participants feeling worse off then when they started.
- Ideological opponents are less likely to be dehumanized when their voices are heard aloud vs. typing.
- Morally outrageous content is more likely to be shared than rational political talking points.
It’s no coincidence that the increase of political polarization in the United States has coincided with the rise of social media and other digital technologies. How is it that something that was supposed to bring us together is increasingly tearing us apart?
The internet has fundamentally changed the way in which people interact and communicate. Many major social networks, like Twitter, Facebook, and other assorted internet forums, are most heavily populated by text-based media. Political discussion is one major component of the digital landscape. It should therefore come as no surprise that online technologies, driven by text, have also drastically changed the way we engage civically with one another – and many feel that change has not been a positive one.
A 2016 Pew Research survey found that a majority of political interactions with ideological opponents left participants feeling stressed, frustrated and angrier than when they first engaged in a discussion. Nearly half of those surveyed felt their discussions were disrespectful, uncivil and likely never to be resolved.
If we’re to engage in a mutual understanding, aim for a mature debate, and avoid knee-jerk reactions to morally outrageous content then it might be best just to turn off the screen and talk face to face.
Discourse in person is more fitting for level-headed political conversation
A sample from the Big Think YouTube comments section.
Recent research from the University of California at Berkeley has shown that a person’s speech and vocal expression is psychologically one of the best ways to communicate disagreements between people.
Lead researcher Juliana Schroeder, set up four experiments with around 300 people to test their reactions to hearing about topics they felt strongly about. After each experiment, the subject had to review how they felt about each person after hearing the argument. The experimental goal was to figure out how receptions to arguments were influenced by the medium in which they were presented.
Schroeder stated:
We observed an inconsistent influence of communication-medium condition in cases of agreement, but in cases of disagreement, we observed a reliable tendency for communicator to be dehumanized less when evaluators heard their voices than when evaluators read the…
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