What has changed is that most everyone now has the ability to contribute to civil discussion on social media. That means even very ignorant people. This must have some kind of effect on the public discourse I would think
Not sure how it bears on the article, but yes I'd think that "very ignorant people" being able to more easily engage in discussion with those different from themselves and learn new facts and perspectives ought to very much raise the level of public discourse.
That's the THEORY. The water level will rise and we'll all be smarter.
What actually happens is Trump, anti-vaxxers, anti-science people find each other and they actually grow in numbers. It becomes harder to distinguish reality from bullshit.
That fundamental tenet of liberalism is wrong. Seriously wrong, and needs to be reworked in light of new information.
People don't critically examine new information and become smarter as a whole. They band together, form tribes, and actively seek out information that confirms their feelings and biases while blocking out other voices, and social media has made it worse as has the rapidity of modern communications.
> actively seek out information that confirms their feelings and biases while blocking out other voice
That sounds about right from what I've seen on social media.
Apart from that it also seems that that is what the social media companies WANT to happen. They want to rile-up people to get them more engaged. The more engaged they are the more time they will spend on social media which causes other people to spend more time on social media and more adds they will consume.
