Thread by @timkellernyc

Part 2 🧵: Social media drives extremism and mutes moderation. (1) 6% of all Twitter users generate 20% of all tweets. But 70% of all tweets they mention are about national politics. These 6% are mostly extremists. (p. 76)

(2) Research has shown that those taking extreme cultural/political positions “often lack status in their off-line lives” and have experienced marginalization. (3) Also their on-line personas are often far different more aggressive) than are their personalities off-line. (p.56)

(4) They are usually strongly opposed to being identified as extremist (tho they are, objectively) and therefore prefer to attack moderates on their own side. Why? (5) By attacking moderates as being unprincipled compromisers or “really” stealth members of the other side—

--they can gain power by depicting the culture as not a spectrum of views but as a battle between good and evil with themselves as part of the coming mainstream (pp.64-65). Bottom line—because on-line extremism distorts reality (it is extreme) and because on-line personas are

...so often detached from reality—“The social media prism inevitably distorts what we see and for many people it creates a delusional form of self-worth.” (p.66)

See Part 1 here.

https://twitter.com/timkellernyc/status/1395080663993360388?s=19

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