cial media shapes al consciousness
By Michael Lujan Bevacqua
emocracies are organisms . They live , breathe and die by the relationships between voters and leaders . In general , the more engagement between the elected and the electors in a society , the stronger or healthier a democracy is . The less engagement , the weaker they tend to be .
is foundation we can develop severabout how democracies function or n . For example , the more people pay he less likely elected officials are to get corrupt practices . The more people know government or society , the more likely e to support programs that benefit them e those that don ’ t .
the more you know , as a rule , the harder se in power to manipulate you . For f you have a basic understanding of the hat supports your society , or how your t operates , or what kind of record your litician has beside their boosted Face- , all these things provide your average bility to discern things like political on , ideological manipulation or even y scapegoating or distraction .
lities in this regard hinge almost entirely cess to information and how you process tand that information . With the increased of the internet and social media into our , it might seem that the stage is being set for democracies to enhance and upgrade .
At present , more than ever before in human history , more information than ever about the world around us , the sum of human knowledge up to this point , is easily available for most within just a few clicks or keystrokes . Rather than being isolated , disconnected in disparate parts of our countries or the globe , the interconnections the internet and social media create , ideally should allow us to create greater feelings of commonality and solidarity , using the nuanced and detailed information we have available .
This potential is too easily lost however , when matched against our basic drives as humans and the very way that social media is structured to provide information and engagement . While the plethora of knowledge available at the tips of our fingers provides the possibilities for developing greater understanding and unity , we see in reality social media and democracies today devolving into rigid
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