52520Andrew
Pro Bowler
Yeah it is always nice to get different opinions from everyone, even when we don't agree. This board and thread are for all of their warts one of the better places to talk about this stuff. And thankfully when things do get a bit out of hand we have people that can step in and restore order @Lost_In_The_Sauce
In regards to social media I think it is a couple things. I think there have always been people more on the extremes when it comes to politics but social media has given those people more of a voice. We have a lot of people with views all over the place suddenly thrust much closer together. A lot of people may not have been exposed to people on the other side as much. Long term I think this is good but short term it is a big adjustment.
Secondly people don't have as many consequences for being jerks on social media. If people talked face to face like they do on certain sites, they would end up getting punched in the face. Getting down votes and such doesn't really have the same effect and some people like the attention. One consequence is that some of this stuff can pop up in interviews and I always try to make sure my posts are defend-able if someone ever asks me about them. A lot of people don't though and while I wouldn't overreact to some highschooler, there are some lines that can be crossed.
I think the big thing though is that people a lot of people on the extremes are now much closer together. It was one thing when that one family member went off about politics but now they have like minded people to spout off with. You get a lot of these people in echo chambers and being in a place like that is not going to bring anyone closer to the center.
You can really learn a lot about the media through sports I think and one example of a bit of an echo chamber was parts of the old board. Every year about this time the Ravens were going to be a playoff team and random practice squad players were being hyped up to oblivion. Then when the Ravens inevitably lose a game(sometimes just winning an ugly one), everyone starts screaming for Harbaugh's and everyone's head. I think @Secret_Agent_Man said it best that whenever the Ravens won, everyone was getting hyped for the Super Bowl and whenever they lose, people wanted them to fire/cut everyone. And don't get me started on how crazy Patriots fans can get.
I do think the main driver for a lot of this stuff is the media though. For me it all goes back to the decline of the news paper. The media these days has become increasingly desperate for money since a lot of places are really struggling. The internet has brought a lot of people up but it has also hurt a lot of places that haven't really been able to keep up. They have found that fear and controversy generally get ratings like nothing else. It is why ESPN years ago always ran Tim Tebow and Manziel stories, those players were controversial and those articles got the most clicks and ad revenue. Good journalism still is there but it is hard to find and it is a lot easier to just post stories on something easy that will get clicks. You see the same type of stuff on certain youtube channels and other sites. For all I talk about the media, I don't think they are part of some huge conspiracy, I think most of them are just trying to make a living in a fairly chaotic field.
But I do think that this all has an affect on people. I think one other thing the media has realized is that when people are scared, they will tune in religiously. Everyone was glued to their TVs during 9/11, same thing when we didn't know what hurricane Irma was going to do. Lots of other examples for sure. But I think a lot of places realized that if they scare people, then they can get people to watch continuously. Then you get a lot of places where they focus on the extremes out there and they paint the other side as these people out to get you. And with all the people in echo chambers on both sides and thus people being driven further left or right, you have a lot of material to choose from to scare your audience. This has been around for a while but has been amplified by social media for sure.
And that just about gets us to where we are now. This is a long post, even for my standards. I think just being so wound up by everything going on right now in the world, it feels nice to just be able to spin down. I think we all kinda need that these days and this thread is a good place to do it. When you get two kids fighting, usually putting them in time out helps to calm things down. I think we could really use one in this country but we really don't get the opportunity to do so. I think when all the shouting is done, most of us just want to make this country a better place and I think one good thing we can all agree on is that a lot of people are showing that we care about this country and want it to succeed. I think at the end of the day we need to just come together again.
