Atlantic article on how social media is damaging our trust in each other

[BoomerFan]

I am a big fan of Jonathan Haidt. He writes about ways to heal the cultural divide between liberals and conservatives. The following article isn't about that topic specifically but it is an interesting read or at least skim (it is really long) nonetheless. 

First though I should mention that I don't love the title about how the last 10 years have been "uniquely stupid" (I'm sure it is designed to get attention but it seems like childish wording to me) but the unique part is accurate at least. And I'm not sure I agree with all of his conclusions but there are still a lot of valuable insights here. I do remember being optimistic for what the internet could mean to everyone many years ago, especially in terms of connecting people and maybe making us collectively smarter, and yet now the tools which should be connecting us (social media) are having what the article calls a "fragmenting" effect instead. I hope some of you will check it out and post your thoughts:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/

[BigPapaKain]

I mean anyone with any sort of critical thinking skill knows that (I didn't read the article - I'm just commenting on the topic headline).

I've recently quit scrolling social media as thoroughly as I used to and I stick to posting videos of my new puppy and goofy (read: gallows and dark humor) memes involving Skeletor, and let me tell you how good the practice has been for my anxiety (which I never really had before the last like 8 years). I'll still catch myself doom-and-gloom scrolling Reddit's political and news channels, but those are usually just to keep me grounded when my brain starts wandering too much.

It's such a shame that we're at a point in human history where we have access to every fact and study you could ever need and most people just use it for confirmation bias and gaslighting.