Re: Why #saveourchildren is not about saving our children

Originally Posted by
peb
I cannot help but wonder if one of Trump's lasting, and worse, effects on our society is the use of social media for too much of our information. Now, I do realize that people were using social media in a bad way, way before Trump. But we have had a president who has used twitter to do everything from announce new policies to just float ideas and see the reaction. I think it has driven everyone to the platforms, albeit many in an indirect fashion. I have literally never read a Trump tweet directly on the twitter account. But I use twitter once or twice a day. Too many politicians, reporters, pundits, etc have taken to twitter to voice opinions and information as their normal means of business. So even people who want to use it to gain legitimate knowledge of issues or sports or whatever, see one after another of bad information, fake news. And I think it has turned into this because thats how our current administration operates.
Its not goint to go away, but I would love to see the next administration just ban the social media platforms from the White House staff completely. Go back to the good ole-days of the White House using the White House press corps in daily briefings and a normal news cycle. And then see if people back off the platform a little bit. It won't solve the problem, but perhaps a step in the right direction.
I'm in agreement with you.
I don't know if the notion of using Twitter and Facebook as the primary means that politicians use to communicate with their constituents, is a permanent thing or not. Perhaps the 'fad' will fade in time... but as currently conceived, it doesn't serve the American public particularly well. Admittedly, any politician has to fight fire with fire, so Biden/Harris will be forced to use Twitter, Facebook, et. al. in the same fashion as Trump.
But after the election, and if God-willing, Trump is deposed, I'd like to think that Biden/Harris will constrain their use of social media, and leave it to the ultra right wing haters... if they do, it could possibly fade out as an influence.
"Reason and facts are sacrificed to opinion and myth. Demonstrable falsehoods are circulated and recycled as fact. Narrow minded opinion refuses to be subjected to thought and analysis. Too many now subject events to a prefabricated set of interpretations, usually provided by a biased media source. The myth is more comfortable than the often difficult search for truth."