FaceBook Is Not The Problem - Dick Rauscher

Ideological Ignorance Is Threatening Our Democracy: FaceBook Is Not The Problem

I have been listening to the uproar over Facebook and the loss of personal data. The level of energy and anger being displayed dumbfounds me. It has become a major issue for our American government. We are now holding hearings in Washington. It is creating problems for the stock market. And it has taken over the headlines in our media. An outsider looking at our global response to the loss of personal data would have to assume that the major threat to humanity is not global climate change, it’s the loss of individual personal data. That loss is somehow literally threatening the future of the human race.

I would suggest that Facebook is nothing more than a distraction from the real problem of social media. A problem far more dangerous than the loss of personal data.

The Loss Of Personal Data On Facebook Is Not The Problem

The problem embedded in Facebook and all social media is “not” the loss of private information. The larger problem is social media’s ability to influence the electorate in our democracy; its ability to manipulate the voters understanding of “truth”. The power that social media has to convince people “what”they should believe. And “how” they should think.

Instead of thinking carefully about both sides of an issue, social media uses “group think” to promote polarized tribal political thinking. Instead of doing their own research and reading on the issues, voters too often accept “handed down truths” on the issue. Unfortunately, the political ideologies driving that “handed down truth” is too often bought and paid for by those who would exercise control in order to satisfy their own need for power, greed, and wealth. The electorate then becomes their unknowing pawns exercising that power in the ballot box.

The Ignorance Embedded In “Handed Down Truths” and Group Think

When unexamined “handed down truths”are accepted as “the”truth, it creates a deep and dangerous level of ignorance. It undermines our American democracy and the very concept of an informed electorate.

The power of social media to shape the voters understanding of “truth” also depends on the ignorance created by “group think”. Our ego does not want to appear stupid, or wrong, so it blindly goes along with the “group think” of those around us. Groupthink derives its power from the human ego’s needs to “be right” in order to protect it’s “self” identity. This collective human need to be “right” is one of the more powerful, and least understood, forces currently controlling and threatening the future of humanity.

Truth Has The Tendency To Lurk Somewhere In The Middle

Blindly accepting rigid political ideologies promoted by social media “groupthink” is common among voters who choose to get all of their information from only one news source. Or one media source. Unfortunately, one-sided information always creates polarization. It also breeds ignorance. And radical polarized ignorance represents a major threat our American democracy. It has the power to elevate “fake news” to the level of absolute truth.

Truth is always found lurking somewhere in the middle between the two extremes of any issue.

The Danger Of Polarized Thinking

The unconscious need of our collective ego’s to be “right”, and protect its “self” identity, is unconsciously creating a level of ideological polarization that is threatening the stability of our world. It is gridlocking our ability to cooperate, dialogue, and compromise. Without those abilities, creating solutions to the problems that threaten human civilization is all but impossible.

The power brokers that hide in the darkness understand the power contained in this simple reality, and they use social media to promote and encourage the ignorance they quietly create to promote their own ends…….and their end goals “rarely”reflect the desires and goals of those who blindly vote the rigid ideological political “ truths” of those dark power brokers.

Summary

Unexamined, handed down truths that are often found in social media and then blindly accepted by an uniformed electorate as “THE truth” too often reflect a level of ego arrogance and ignorance that undermines our democracy…and too often creates and enables autocratic political leadership.

Ignorance is the inability to learn, unlearn, and then relearn by doing one’s own study of an issue from sources that present both sides of the issue. Unfortunately, social media is creating an ignorant and polarized world…..and the loss of personal data is not the primary problem.

The damaging, handed down, false information trafficked on social media as absolute truth“ is”.