A Novel Solution to the Problems of Social Media in Politics

00:00:00.000 | All right, I want to do a news reaction here.

00:00:03.380 | Brief.

00:00:04.880 | It's an article that a Canadian listener of the show sent me.

00:00:10.180 | And I thought it had something positive in it about our, what we can do and what we

00:00:16.800 | are doing about some of the travails of social media and our culture.

00:00:20.580 | So here's the article right here.

00:00:22.800 | Uh, it's written by Sierra add growl.

00:00:26.820 | It was a politician in Toronto and the, uh, the title of this article is Sierra

00:00:33.780 | aggro explains why she's embracing tech, but not Twitter in her run for public.

00:00:38.580 | Office.

00:00:39.440 | So there's a couple of things I wanted to point out.

00:00:42.080 | And for those who are listening, the YouTube version of this segment actually

00:00:46.980 | will show you the article as I go through it.

00:00:49.080 | All right.

00:00:50.080 | So a couple of things I want to point out here, here's where the first

00:00:52.680 | big point is of the article.

00:00:54.220 | She says last week, I announced that I'm running for Toronto city

00:00:57.380 | council, the Parkdale high park.

00:00:59.760 | So this is someone who is running for city council in a major city.

00:01:03.340 | And this was the big part of the announcement.

00:01:06.500 | And I'm quoting from the article here, but as a candidate and a counselor, so if

00:01:11.960 | elected, I will not be using Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, I deactivated

00:01:17.160 | my accounts this morning.

00:01:21.320 | This is something that is very rare to see a political candidate announcing.

00:01:25.480 | I will not use social media during my campaign.

00:01:27.540 | I will not use social media once I'm elected.

00:01:31.100 | All right.

00:01:33.060 | So Sarah gives two main reasons why she dislikes these services.

00:01:38.020 | Let me just briefly summarize both number one, and I'm quoting here.

00:01:41.600 | It is well-documented that social media has subjected people to intense

00:01:48.980 | vitriol and abuse with the highest levels of harassment and threats directed

00:01:54.500 | towards women, LGBTQ2 plus those who aren't white and people at all the

00:01:59.860 | intersection of these identities.

00:02:00.800 | All right.

00:02:01.060 | So vitriol and abuse.

00:02:03.900 | Number two.

00:02:05.940 | And again, I'm quoting is these platforms contribute to much wider harm, including

00:02:13.460 | radicalization, polarization, deteriorating mental health, the undermining

00:02:18.600 | of democratic beliefs and institutions.

00:02:20.220 | All right.

00:02:20.380 | So those are two clear issues we've talked about before.

00:02:22.800 | These are harassment machines and they are causing all these negative

00:02:29.460 | psychological impacts, even beyond harassment.

00:02:31.980 | All right.

00:02:33.360 | So what do we have so far?

00:02:34.420 | A politician saying, I'm not going to use social media and giving two well-known,

00:02:38.160 | but very strong reasons for why not.

00:02:41.180 | All right.

00:02:42.500 | Now we get to the part that gave me hope.

00:02:44.180 | I think this is very interesting.

00:02:45.380 | She says, this does not mean I'm not using technology.

00:02:50.720 | She goes on to talk about all the ways she will be using

00:02:54.600 | technology to connect with people.

00:02:56.160 | So they built out this fancy website.

00:02:59.000 | And I'm quoting here that will make it easy for people to share information

00:03:02.200 | with their friends and neighbors on whatever platform they like.

00:03:04.200 | And I hope you will share this article too.

00:03:05.720 | I'll be engaging directly both online and off through the site, email, text,

00:03:12.760 | newsletter, virtual calls, face-to-face interactions, and events where we can

00:03:19.180 | actually talk to each other and not just tweet at each other.

00:03:24.100 | This is the thing that I like.

00:03:28.540 | Sierra Agrell is making the observation that is true, but that is often missed

00:03:35.060 | in media discussions about social media and its ills, that social media

00:03:39.860 | does not equal the internet to say.

00:03:44.900 | I'm not going to use social media is not the same as saying I am not going to use

00:03:49.660 | the modern internet to connect with people, to hear from my constituents,

00:03:53.740 | to hear what their issues are, to know what's going on.

00:03:55.900 | She is saying these tools are not the only way to do that.

00:03:59.740 | And in fact, there are pretty bad way to do that.

00:04:02.540 | I have all of these other existing tools, my website, email, text, newsletter,

00:04:07.780 | virtual calls, face-to-face interactions, and events.

00:04:10.700 | This I think is one of the most important moves we can make to get around some of

00:04:15.260 | the ills of social media, and that is to move away from the platforms, but then

00:04:19.740 | not just move away from the platforms, but to declare with confidence and

00:04:23.460 | embrace with confidence, digital alternatives, the internet was around

00:04:28.460 | before social media, the internet will be around after social media.

00:04:31.660 | There's plenty of innovation out there.

00:04:34.220 | There's plenty of novel tools out there where the internet can help you, the

00:04:38.540 | democratic process and connection.

00:04:40.060 | So I like this.

00:04:41.460 | You can walk away from social media without walking away from technology.

00:04:47.340 | Sierra concludes by saying, I want to use technology, but in a way that builds

00:04:52.260 | connections and allows people to understand what I'm trying to do and why.

00:04:55.700 | All right.

00:04:57.140 | So there we go.

00:04:58.980 | There is some positive vision of our future with social media.

00:05:04.580 | We can embrace technology without having to be clicking on those stupid icons and

00:05:09.860 | doing those little 240 character threads and emojis grown grown adults using emojis.

00:05:15.420 | Uh, this politician has it right.

00:05:17.340 | And I hope other people follow suit.

00:05:20.180 | That was a good article.

00:05:23.100 | I should mention, if you want to send me things interesting at Cal Newport.com,

00:05:27.500 | that's where I got this particular article.

00:05:29.340 | I do like the links that people send me.

00:05:31.260 | Uh, if you have thoughts about the show, send those to Jesse at Cal Newport.com.

00:05:36.500 | He actually reads them.

00:05:37.860 | Are they right?

00:05:38.940 | Yeah.

00:05:39.140 | Yeah.

00:05:39.460 | Do we get, do we get comments?

00:05:40.860 | Yeah, we do.

00:05:41.620 | Yeah.

00:05:41.980 | Some good ones.

00:05:42.700 | [MUSIC]

A Novel Solution to the Problems of Social Media in Politics | Deep Questions Podcast

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