media. Most readers still want to search out materials and answers of their own. In the latter case, the current book serves as a critical source for starting a journey to a better understanding of digital media technology and how it transforms social interaction. As media theorist Neil Postman said, “Technology doesn’t just add something, it changes everything,” though new technology can never substitute for human values (Hendrickson, 2000).
This book thus aims to provide its readers with an in-depth understanding of the social media mechanism, on which they may develop strategies in connecting with others and cope with the communication challenges in a networked society. The information benefits are manifold, including not only staying away from social pain, but also joining hands to change the world. If you care about the impact of social media – what social media usage reveals about us, what it is delivering and we fantasize it can supply, this book is for you.
References
1 Almehmadi, A., Bourque, M., & El-Khatib, K. (2013). A Tweet of the mind: Automated emotion detection for social media using brainwave pattern analysis. The 2013 International Conference on Social Computing, Alexandria, VA.
2 Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/.10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497
3 Hendrickson, L. (2000). Communications technology and personal identity formation. Educational Technology & Society, 3(3), 27–38. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/jeductechsoci.3.3.27.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A5ae5dcab75c12af810fa8ce76b5be48e.
4 Lieberman, M. D. (2013). Social: Why our brains are wired to connect. Crown Publishers.
5 Rheingold, H. (2012). Net smart: How to thrive online. The MIT Press.
6 Stafford, T., & Bell, V. (2012). Brain network: Social media and the cognitive scientist. TRENDS in Cognitive Science, 16(10), 489–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.08.001.
7 Viale, R. (2011). Brain reading social action. International Review of Economics, 58(3), 319–366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-011-0130-0.
1 Why Study Social Media?
LEARNING GOALS
This chapter will help you understand:
What is the power of social media?
Are social media the culprit of causing social distrust?
Why do we need to study social media?
How are traditional and digital media technology adopted differently?
KEY CONCEPTS
The “Us vs. Them” mentality
Echo chamber
Digitization
Silo effect
Information cocoon
Digitalization
THEORY HIGHLIGHT
Construal Level Theory
Overview
Even though Joe Biden won the United States presidency in 2020, Democrats in the House of Representatives suffered serious defeats in the election, falling far short of expectations and setting off infighting amongst themselves. Immediately after Election Day, some Democratic House members pointed fingers at colleagues for losing seats in the House of Representatives. One of their key concerns was lack of appreciation of the importance of social media strategies in political campaigns. No one argued about whether to incorporate social media into campaign strategies or not. Rather, they debated the consequences of failing to let social media play an important role in the political activities.
The Power of Social Media
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that it was inadequate for her Democratic colleague, Conor Lamb, to spend merely $2,000 on Facebook the week before the election, although he did manage to win in Pennsylvania (Herndon, 2020). “If you’re not spending $200,000 on Facebook with fund-raising, persuasion, volunteer recruitment, get-out-the-vote the week before the election, you are not firing on all cylinders,” said Ocasio-Cortez (Herndon, 2020). To her, digital investment and advertising on Facebook was important because that’s where voters gathered, and both positive and negative political rhetoric went viral all the time. In political campaigns, no one could afford to allow Facebook to radicalize things without fighting back, she said (Herndon, 2020).
Of course, there are many factors contributing to the success of a political campaign, but politicians agree that a major one is the way the campaign team uses social media to raise money, motivate voters, and win support. In a networked society, a revolutionary social media strategy must be an integral part of any political campaign. Despite the power of social media being widely recognized, many people lack a coherent and analytic account of why certain social media strategies work while others do not. Fewer understand the mechanism of social media usage, for instance, how political views, participation, and voter behavior may be swayed by information disseminated on social media.
Another big lesson we learned from the 2020 US election was that social media could be used as a venue to spread weaponized misinformation, making people lose confidence and faith in those with different political beliefs. There was a time of distrust after the election caused by a profound lack of trust in the US political system and the mainstream media. Some even exhibited distrust in the future, which shocked the world, as Americans have been known for their persistent optimistic belief in the future. As a hallmark of their nation, Americans have long held the rosy assumption that the arc of justice moves inexorably upwards, and that the future could be and should be brighter than the past (Short, 2020). After that optimism weakened, more people faced a fearful future filled with constant anxiety and indignation. Some people believe that social media caused the problem of social distrust.
Social Media in a Time of Distrust
Social scientists argue that social media should not be perceived as the culprit that caused a time of distrust. For many, the advantages of social media have been misdirected, which is in contrast to what we have known for decades about these information platforms. In those good old days, we marveled at how much social media had changed the way we lived. They changed how we communicated, how we consumed news and entertainment, and how we worked and conducted business. These changes have been taken for granted, especially for those who grew up with the rise of social media. However, many people fail to understand why hate speech, conspiracy theories, and other types of disinformation flourish on social media, thus compounding the surge of the exhausting period of distrust.
Hate
