Since I am on a communications jag today...if you want to understand how society got so fucked up....I encourage reading the insightful work of Joseph B. Walther on Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyperpersonal Interaction. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00…
By using impersonal devices and social media platforms we are both intensifying and destroying the traditional emotional and cognitive links between human beings. Hyperpersonal reduces our normal physical cues and creates asynchronous communication leading to conflict and stress.
Social media allows people to invent false personas, adopt causes they know nothing about, threaten and insult complete strangers... often inviting manipulative groups to harness that emotional energy. gq.com/story/social-m…
Counterintuitive to this narrative is that social media might reduce physical interactions. This has been disproven in numerous studies. But these studies do not address how we shape our knowledge using social media. The number one provider of information creativematter.skidmore.edu/cgi/viewconten…
Early research (2012) on the effects of social media on elections showed that social media could help a user better measure the opinions of their online social networks and real life peer groups. This was not necessarily a bad thing in politics. openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/hand…
Researchers did not predict that social media would create vast fake social networks, fuel false peer pressure and emotionally manipulate unsuspecting voters. Now we are like cats following hot button laser beams, ignoring the dull reality of politics. vox.com/policy-and-pol…
Social media is so prevalent that cognitive dissonance is the rule rather than the exception. Something we saw in the impeachment. Where one group was convinced of guilt and the other supported a different view of events. Dividing the nation in two. projects.fivethirtyeight.com/impeachment-po…
We can't imagine a Democrat who voted for Trump. We don't want to believe that Trump is a liberal and supports some left wing ideals. We can't imagine anything but polarized politics now. We need conflict to be engaged. Where did that come from? time.com/voices-from-de…
That structure comes from entertainment. The basic building blocks of human perception welded together. Sports, sitcoms, reality shows, songs, and movies all follow the structure of conflict, emotional engagement and surprise to keep your attention. theatlantic.com/entertainment/…
Imagine casting American politics. Punching up the plot to keep it interesting. Keeping ahead of the news cycle with "shocking" revelations. Leading PR with controversial twitter feeds. All led by a larger than life bullshitter with a goofy family. scriptmag.com/features/prime…
Keep it spicy and almost unbelievable. Hillbillies move to Beverly Hills. A housewife who is really a witch. A failed casino owner who plays a rich guy on TV who runs to get free PR...suddenly finds himself President of the United States. Hilarity ensues. vox.com/a/most-influen…
But the coverage of the impeachment trial, the exposure of corruption, the childish emperor like revenge on earnest truth tellers proved that we are powerless to snap our government back to reality. The Dem debacle in Iowa showed that technology is not our friend in politics.
We must force accountability on the media, news gathers, social platforms, data marketers, politicians, law makers and our government to end this frolic into fantasy and restore cognitive impact based on truth and performance, not digital smoke and mirrors. Thus ends the lecture.
To bring the point of our severe cognitive dissonance home: This is a narcissistic pubic official, a morbidly obese draft dodger, congenital liar and grifter who puts the rank of a serving military officer and combat veteran in quotes and then attempts to excuse his venality. 
