“That social media benefits mankind is irrefutable. I have been an evangelist for the power of new media for 20 years. However, technology in the form of globalized communication, transportation and supply chains conspires to make today’s world more complex. Events in any corner of the world now impact the rest of the globe quickly and sharply. Nations are being pulled apart along sectarian seams in Iraq, tribal divisions in Afghanistan, national interests in Ukraine and territorial fences in Gaza. These conflicts portend a quickening of global unrest, confirmed by Foreign Policy magazine’s map of civil protest. The ISIS videos are simply the exposed wire. I believe that over the next century, even great nations will Balkanize — break into smaller nations. One of the principal drivers of this Balkanization is social media … Individuals self-organize by affinity, and within affinity, by sensibility and personality. The ecosystem of social media is predicated on delivering more of what the user already likes. This, precisely, is the function of a Follow or Like. In this way, media coagulates rather than fragments online… While these movements are nascent, they are indicative of the steady walk toward Balkanization. Religious groups in Kansas are increasingly less tolerant, because they act with shared purpose around social issues that supersede their loyalty to the national law. One website, Stormfront.org, can inspire a hundred killings. One man, Clive Bundy, can defy the power of local government, because empathetic zealots rally around his cause through social media. Two ISIS videos galvanize two sides of a conflict. Social media possesses an entropic quality… In the disease lies the cure. The solution to rising instability is to embrace the principles of Balkanization in a manner that preserves and even strengthens nationhood. The state must nourish the organization of independent supra-national communities around universal issues such as health, science, money and safety.”
Really interesting discussion of social media as a new revolution in how people identify and accept unifying social identities and values. Or, interesting in the abstract and a little disorienting when considered in application – I am sort of convinced by this. It isn’t hard to think of times at like summer camps or even large courses where people ‘grouped’ and developed subtle or intentional rivalries.
The article makes me reflect on the purpose of ‘unification’, the tradeoffs in preserving peace, and whether there might be a time when a world of highly fragmented social groups can coexist peacefully and fruitfully. Like, Star Trek people are a little bit the same, tbh.
Related: Marxism Theory underlying Buzzfeed
Also, this (super great) podcast is a little prescient: State of the Re:Union
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