We know how closed groups work — and that suggests that a shift to chat apps will only increase polarisation.
psychology
A collection of 19 posts
Partisan satire and the mechanisms of unintentional misinformation
The Washington Post has detailed the vicious circle between two different political groups that is breeding unintentional misinformation - and increasing polarisation
Twitter to UnLike Likes?
Could Twitter be about to kill the Like? What impact would that have on the network?
The dangerous ignorance at the heart of Facebook
The attitude Mark Zuckerberg is displaying towards news suggests a deep ignorance of the true dynamics of news and its role in society.
What causes Fake News to spread? People.
For all the panic, soul-searching and debate about the “fake news” phenomenon, there’s one basic truth I rarely see discussed. Much of the blame for the spread of “fake news” can be placed squarely at the feet of the…
Social media and the annihilation of self
One of the cornerstones of much social media theory is that it enables a constructed self: we show off the best version of ourselves. And it’s a neat theory that explains some of the depression people experience after spending…
ISIS recruits women via social media
ISIS recruits women via social media How ISIS uses social media to recruit women: “The moment you indicate any sort of interest in ISIS or ask any questions about it on a social platform, you get 500 new followers on…
What does it mean to be creative?
Compelling exploration of how creative minds function: As psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who has interviewed creative people across various fields points out, creative people “show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead…