Social Warming: How Social Media Polarises Us All

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Description

Nobody meant for this to happen. Facebook didnt mean to facilitate a genocide. Twitter didnt want to be used to harass women. YouTube never planned to radicalise young men. But with billions of users, these platforms need only tweak their algorithms to generate more engagement. In so doing, they bring unrest to previously settled communities anderode our relationships. Social warming has happened gradually as a by-product of our preposterously convenient digital existence. But the gradual deterioration of our attitudes and behaviour on- and offline this vicious cycle of anger and outrage is real. And it can be corrected. Heres how.

Reviews

Social media was meant to bring us closer together. Instead, it tore us apart. Charles Arthur has written the definitive account of how arrogance and greed got us into this mess, and how we might get out of it. Witty, rigorous, and as urgent as a fire alarm.

A guide to how the apps we use every day are hacking our politics, our society, and even who we are. It reads like science fiction, except hes describing our world right now.

Coolly prosecutorial

A compelling account of how a handful of social media platforms came to dominate society and how to minimise the damage they cause, because We cant uninvent them.

The rapidity with which social media has come to dominate communications in this country in less than two decades has been breathtaking Arthur helps bring the whole complex issue into greater focus here. He looks at the origins of social media, describing its early promise, and then follows the dangerous paths the phenomenon has been taking in recent years.

FascinatingAs connected as we may feel on social media,Social Warmingthoroughlyshows how detached weve all becomenot just online but in real life too.

Author Bio

Charles Arthur is a journalist, author and speaker, writing on science and technology for over thirty years. He was technology editor of the Guardian from 20052014, and afterwards carried out research into social division at Cambridge University.He is the author of twospecialist books,Digital WarsandCyber Wars.