This is no April Fool’s joke.
In a recent post I wrote about the potential for social media, or rather social media content, to be used as propaganda. It’s a definite possibility.
There’s another thought that I want to add to my theory in this area. Normally, we think about propaganda as being “pushed” at us. You turn on the TV, open the newspaper (Yes, Virginia, there still are newspapers, at least for now.), pick up a magazine, and there it is. You don’t need to live in the classical dictatorship to experience propaganda. It’s everywhere.
In these cases, propaganda is pushed at us. We don’t actually seek it out. When we pick up that paper or magazine or turn on the TV we might actually be seeking something else, but are made to settle for what’s presented to us. Not so with social media.
With social media, we actively seek out the topics we want. We head to the sites with the skewed information that will tickle our fancy. We don’t settle; we select. We’re pulled to what might be just a polemically slanted view on something that only serves to further the writer’s own personal causes. Or, it may have a larger impact than that. What we select from, we all know, is not always true and often supports one point of view or the other. That’s part of what social media is about, freedom of information and freedom of selection. But social media is also becoming about the freedom to delude ourselves.
It’s the “pull” propaganda phenomenon, representing a major shift in how we deal with our world.
