Axiom: there is no simple “reality.”

I remember the promise of the internet.  Ease of connectivity would produce greater understanding.  Instead what we got was not the spread of democracy but “mobocracy.”  We are being fractured by a firehose of falsehood.  Facebook estimates that 126 million Americans, about 40% of the population were reached by Russian generated media in the last election.  Social media is a mechanism for capturing and consuming attention like no other.  The more information consumed from social media sources –the harder it becomes to create a shared, open space for political discussion.

Nearly everyone has a iphone, cheap information cheaply delivered.

On average Americans touch their cell phones 2,600 times a day.  That is the average.  If the phone is within reach just try to resist the urge to “refresh” and see what is new….

Here is how it works.

Major premise
The more the addictive-by-design devices are used, the more the media companies learn about you and I.

Minor premise
The more is learned about you and I the more attention can be sold by the social-media companies.

Ergo
Profits rise exponentially for social media companies.
(Facebooks posted profits on November 1st were 80% over the same quarter last year)

Social media companies know well what you and I like.

To put a sharp edge to the point, the Trump campaign in 2016, on an average day, fed Facebook between 50,000 and 60,000 different versions of its advertisements, some aimed at just a few dozen voters.  This is according to Brad Parscale, the campaigns digital director.  What makes you laugh and what makes you angry, and what binds you to others, is algorithmically parsed.

Perhaps the uber tweeter is Trump himself.  When he launches an outrageous tweet, the world pays pathological attention.  “He is today’s attention economy made flesh.”  He reads little, gets his news from cable television, tweets without thought, and loves outrage.

This information is contained in an article in the November issue of The Economist.  CLICK HERE