One World, 2021. — 320 p.
Social Warming - The Dangerous and Polarising Effects of Social Media by Charles Arthur is an impassioned exploration of the ways in which social media has manipulated us all. This book is witty, rigorous, and as urgent as a fire alarm. It’s also ‘cooly prosecutorial’. Nobody meant for this to happen. Facebook didn’t mean to facilitate a genocide. Twitter didn’t 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 and erode 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. Here’s how.
Contents
Prologue: The Shape of the Problem
Early Days: The Promise and the Power
Amplification and Algorithms: The Watcher Beneath Your Screen
Outrage and Scissor Statements: Our Tribal Mindset
Worst-Case Scenario: How Facebook Sent Myanmar Haywire
Divided Vote: How Social Media Polarises Politics
Fact to Fake: How the Media Ecosystem Collapsed
Democracy at Risk: Why Social Media Undermines Elections
Pandemic: Inoculated Against Truth
Regulation: Cutting the Problem Down to Size
Acknowledgements
Notes
About the Author