Social media grew in a civic void and then accelerated that void
Evidence
On the one hand, the online thrives off the atomization inflicted on society by the neoliberal offensive in the 1980s and 1990s. More and more, it has become the substitute association for a world in which all associative units have been eroded. (There is ample research showing strong correlations between declining civic commitment and broadband access.) At the same time, the internet accelerates and even entrenches this atomization. In this sense it is hardly a substitute for the older types of civic association we knew from the twentieth century. The exit and entry costs online of our new, simulated civil society are extremely low. The internet is the ideal exit option for a general “exit society”—allowing people to make their “voice” heard, in Albert Hirschman’s sense, while always keeping open the possibility for citizens to drop out and check out. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 277
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Disintermediation atomized society into isolated individuals — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 82; Digital protest crowds behave like swarms that cannot be organized durably — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 343; Social media’s fragmentation and boundary-dissolution combine to undermine the national public sphere’s integrating power — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 35 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Social media’s fragmentation and boundary-dissolution combine to undermine the national public sphere’s integrating power
#corroborates(0.85) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 35 - Social media platforms simulate a public sphere they now merely exploit.
#corroborates(0.80) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 580 - Social media may be changing citizens’ perception of the public sphere itself
#expands(0.75) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 43