That’s right, social media platforms grew to be the huge conglomerates they are today because they brought people together. However, that is going to the reason that will bring about their demise, too.
You see, social media platforms were initially about allowing families, local communities, and groups to connect in ways that they couldn’t before. But, it wasn’t long before people with extremist views who previously would have been isolated began using those platforms as gather together and cause serious trouble.
You’d think that social media platform owners would be able to silence those people, but the algorithms designed to spread the most popular news stories are unable to differentiate between positive and negative interactions.
The best, or at least the most well-known example is Donald Trump. A huge number of people interact with the content that’s created about him to see what shocking news will emerge next. His followers, of which there are millions, will be applauding or shouting fake news. Everyone else is afraid they’ll miss the next chapter of the drama, that is, his life.
Of course, Donald is not even the tip of the iceberg. His antics are tame by comparison to the extremist groups across the globe sharing their hate speech on social media platforms, not to mention the other narcissistic and other anti-social groups who are doing the same thing with devastating effects. The minorities of the world are taking control of the platforms.
There is a possible light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is AI. If they can be programmed with the ethics and morals of the majority of people, they could remove anti-social content before it has the opportunity to be shared by the minority.
