Blog #8

A recent study in the Netherlands compared various forms of digital, computer moderated forms of communication (CMC) to face-to-face (FTF) communication. The findings of the study in my view serve to explain, at least partially the current state of affairs that we find ourselves in concerning fake news, kayfabe, trolls, 4chan, Anonymous etc.
A key take away from the study was that the further away we get from actual face-to-face communication; as in a voice message versus an actual face-to-face encounter, or a text-only message versus an actual telephone conversation, a "tweet" versus a long form email etc., the more volatile our conversations tend to become emotionally and the easier it is for events (and persons) to be misrepresented.
Also, the ability to "retweet", "share" at an incredibly high volume and velocity can create incendiary misrepresentations, confrontations and distortions at a heretofore unknown scope, scale and degree.
In reviewing Robin's post I was reminded of our discussions in class concerning "semantic contagion", "kayfabe" and our current commander in chief. I also remember how, during the 2016 campaign well respected historians and journalists like David Brooks and Anne Applebaum were creating their own form of semantic contagion in predicting that Trump would eventually "fall of his own weight" and/or the US surely wouldn't fall so easily for "Ukraine-style" political subversion and shenanigans. Sadly, how wrong they were.
We "become" at least to some degree, our technology. Their seems to be an incredibly sophisticated, highly nuanced relationship that we, as humans have with the Internet and questions of truth, expediency, reliability, confirmation bias and persuasion. Not to sound like a Luddite (which I am surely not given my total dependence on Apple products, Netflix, Twitter, FB etc.) I fear that we are becoming like the proverbial frog being slowly boiled to death. Maybe that is why classes like this are crucial in helping us retain both our sanity and critical thinking skills.