narrative that can hurt people’s feelings. Such “hate stratagems” work, like tactics of war to inflame the emotions of followers, denigrate the outclass, and inflict permanent and irreparable harm on an opponent (Kirk & Martin, 2020). The abusive, insulting, intimidating, and harassing disinformation could easily lead to violence, hatred, discrimination, or distrust. By using labels, epithets, threats, and lies, producers of misinformation could destroy political opponents, manipulate public opinion, and disrupt a democratic system like an election. Unfortunately, such misinformation and disinformation can go viral easily on social media.
The “Us vs. Them” Mentality
The proliferation of falsehood and conspiracy theories on social media is partially due to the mechanism of these platforms, which can easily promote self responses, self beliefs, and selfish recognition. Because millions of users can stay connected on social media, scholars used to applaud the fact that social media could promote the return of a “public sphere” proposed by Habermas (1991), where “private people come together as a public” for the purpose of using reason to further critical knowledge that may lead to political change (p. 27).
The public sphere requires unlimited access to information, equal and protected participation, and the absence of institutional influence (Kruse et al., 2018). The idea is integral to the healthy existence of a participatory democracy, leading to action in the way of social movements (Habermas, 1991). Some scholars argued that social media are organized in ways that meet the requisites of a public sphere (Fuchs, 2008).
As shown in the 2020 US presidential election, social media have failed to promote unlimited access to information, equal access and participation, and these spaces have not been free of institutional influence. Instead, the platforms were ideal for developing an “us vs. them” mentality among users, especially in an election year. Heavy social media users are more likely to shut down media channels offering information from “their side,” reinforce selective exposure and the silo effect, and drive us into echo chambers or information cocoons.
Some go even further and believe that an unworthy other side can be a threat against “us.” They must be defeated politically, destroyed, or locked up, which requires “us” to cast aside traditional norms and commitments like trusting others and diversity. “Us vs. them” opposes these commitments as it does not fit an “us vs. them” mentality.
Digitization and Digitalization
Since the first digital message was sent out from a computer at the University of California in Los Angeles to another at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California on October 29, 1969, marking the start of the internet, the world has been significantly transformed by the internet and computer-based technologies, including social media (Zhong, 2020). It is hard to predict the future of social media and how they will advance. Problematic use of social media may be a growing social concern, for example, hate speech or cyberbullying. Social media were not originally designed to protect users from abuse, misinformation, or disinformation. As a result, people will be vulnerable to more harm on social media in the coming decades. These digital nuisances, unfortunately, will keep harassing users for a long time.
Facing the potential perils on social media, users are encouraged to search for solutions for new challenges and overcome them. One of the solutions is to study them. However, the future of social media usage can be exciting, too. There are ample positive effects associated with using them. Many researchers believe that social media usage can change the world for good. It will be interesting to witness how social media-dependent human societies will evolve in coming decades.
What is the future of social media? Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel Laurate, once said, “It is difficult to predict, especially the future.” However, if we have to predict the future of a social media-dependent human society, people in such a society will universally embrace the trend of digitization and digitalization. The use of social media represents the digital transformation development of social life, a societal process requiring people to prepare, adopt, and integrate digital changes. Meanwhile, people are subject to develop and are confronted with old and new digital models in life and business.
To understand the future of social media, it is useful to define and differentiate digitization and digitalization. Digitization describes the analog-to-digital conversion of existing data and documents, in which the data are not changed in any substantial way, but simply are encoded in a digital format. For example, when an old black-and-white movie is converted to a digital version, the resolution may be improved and even colors can be added, but the movie remains the same movie, just in a digital format. Digitization can reap efficiency benefits when the digitized data are easily circulated and shared over the internet.
In the business world, digitalization is defined as “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business” (Garner, 2021). In this vein, we define digitalization at the societal level as the use of digital technologies to change human communication and social life, providing new benefits and value-added opportunities for human societies. Thus, digitalization moves beyond digitization (see Table 1.1), leveraging digital information technology to transform social life and business models – evaluating, reengineering, and reimagining the way we live and do business.
Table 1.1 The differences between digitization and digitalization.
| Digitization | Digitalization | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Digitization describes the analog-to-digital conversion of existing data and documents, in which the data are not changed in any substantial way but simply are encoded in a digital format. | Digitalization refers to the use of digital technologies to change human communication and social life and provide new benefits and value-added opportunities for human societies. |
| Examples | Converting a black–white movie into a colored one with better resolutionScanning a paper book to a digital bookRecording a live lecture to keep as a digital file | Analyzing Google search results to understand flu season trendsUsing digital tools to monitor the quality of telemedicine visitsUsing analytics tools to study customers’ feedbacks on services |
The synchronization of human communication in real-time through advanced digitalization has transformed our social life since the birth of the internet in 1969, causing a series of epoch-making changes in the current social media-dependent society that is dramatically different from previous eras, like the agricultural and industrial ages. In the coming decades, we should see a growing integration of multiple technologies into various aspects of our societies that will be increasingly digital. Some examples of digitalization include: smart homes, e-learning, e-healthcare, smart mobility, and smart cities, which are largely powered by computer-based technology, including information science and mobile technology.
Many domains will benefit from digitalization; cultural artifacts like artwork and historical relics can be digitized and therefore preserved and shown to the public, even if they are stolen, damaged, or are just not conveniently accessible. As more and more information and data are easily shared and accessed due to digitalization, more knowledge can be shared and produced like never before, adding new values to human societies. The widespread impact of digitalization affects everything from interpersonal communication and
