Opinions are crucial for productive discourse in any society, which ultimately leads to better democratization. Without one being opinionated, society will get monotonous, the herd mentality gets solidified and the plurality of opinions is impacted. But when these opinions are based on fragile reasoning and prejudice, then it gets alarming, as it works towards dividing the society.
In today’s modern world, a large number of people possess opinions about things: Political, social and economic. We can attribute this to the advent of modern communication tools, especially social media. Social media has contributed greatly to the free flow of information, which is necessary for any society to have opinions. Without such ease of flow of information we wouldn’t have seen society immersing itself in productive discourse.
Despite its pros, one of the dangerous impacts of social media is that it has led to what can be called as the fragility of Opinion.
Opinions are extremely subjective, and due to this subjectivity, they need to be based more on logic and rationality, otherwise they deconstruct the social fabric that holds society together. For instance if opinions are based on prejudice, it directly impacts the social fabric that holds us together. With the advent and excessive use of social media, opinions have lost the logic and rational reasoning it needs to be based on.
The reason behind it, is the social media tools, that work on algorithms, which are designed to increase the reach, or rather these are being fed with the instructions to increase the reach and the easiest way to get greater reach is to feed on fear and hate. As Nual Yuvah Harrari noted that fear instantly gets instigated in the mind, it captures human attention, so social media algorithms are perpetuating content that is based on fear, hate, segregation and prejudice. It helps these kinds of content get more visibility which is affecting the subconscious mind of the people and is resulting in a society where opinions are based on weak reasoning and logic which has clearly affected how the world operates today.
All this has made the world a narrow space where the plurality of opinions is affected which in turn had impacted democracy and positively contributed to the rise of divisions. The world needs the ones in control of algorithms to abandon such measures. It needs to strengthen the education system so people are taught the right values, especially about the use of social media, so as to protect the upcoming generations from getting defrauded by scams and sham ideas.
This fragility of opinions has had dire consequences which has led to the influencing of public opinions. One of the key tools of influencing public opinion is advertisement. Advertisement is one grey area which has raised many eyebrows, especially political advertisement which is an area of grave concern.
One of the prime examples of this is the “Cambridge Analytica Scandal”. Cambridge Analytica was a British political consulting firm specializing in data analysis, behavioural, micro targeting, and communication strategies. It used the data of people online, mostly from Facebook to bombard the users with political ads, especially those in the swing states of the USA. It was believed to be involved in manipulation of public opinion in the 2016 US presidential election. It reveals as to which levels the public opinion can be manipulated and moulded. The easy moulding of it has led to the rise of populism in the world. In the USA the rise of Trump, in India the rise of Modi, in Pakistan the rise of Imran Khan, all can be attributed to the use of social media being used to influence and manipulate public opinion and it has given space to populism in democracy in places where it was hard to imagine, like the USA.
The social impact of this weakening of opinion is also a cause for concern. People are becoming less tolerant towards others’ opinions and they are easily getting instigated. One of the examples of this can be the attack on the US capitol after Trump lost the Presidential election. That couldn’t have been imagined happening in a modern democracy like the USA. but nonetheless it did. Also today, partisanship and divide in American society is at its peak, the upcoming election is being treated as do or die election for many and there are reports that Republican might still question the election if they lose. Such degradation of opinion can largely be associated with social media and the use of algorithms. Even in countries like Pakistan and India, hate and abuse is increasing day by day.
All this has made the world a narrow space where the plurality of opinions is affected which in turn had impacted democracy and positively contributed to the rise of divisions. The world needs the ones in control of algorithms to abandon such measures. It needs to strengthen the education system so people are taught the right values, especially about the use of social media, so as to protect the upcoming generations from getting defrauded by scams and sham ideas.
