I saw these two on social media this morning.
They are a reminder of how we are living in media and information bubbles, and how it can make others seem like idiots, crazy, or at the very least misguided and out of touch.
BUBBLES
In one sense, we always and inevitably live in our own bubble. I live in my world, you live in yours. Each being is their own world.
Also, we have always lived in some kinds of social and cultural bubbles. There has always been other groups of people with very different cultures, experiences, and worldviews. The further away, then often the greater the difference between the bubbles.
And yet, today’s media world is creating a different kind of information fragmentation.
Just a few decades ago, most people received information from the same sources. That had its downsides since the information is always filtered and presented with an agenda, from a bias, and for a certain purpose. Although it did also create some kind of social cohesion. At the very least, we were familiar with the same information, and we could – I imagine – more easily understand where the others were coming from.
Today, we can choose to live in very insulated media bubbles. We seek out certain information online and perhaps watch just one or a few TV channels. Social media algorithms present to us what we seem to like and be interested in, what’s profitable for the social media company, and also – in some cases – what the social media owners want us to see for political or other reasons.
Very few seek out media and information from “the other side”, and those who do tend to already be interested in understanding the other side.
ACTING ON THE INFORMATION WORLD WE LIVE IN
When we perceive, speak, and act on the information in our bubble, and others do the same within their bubble, there is no wonder we have increasing polarization in politics and society in general.
We may have the similar values and want the same for society, but we have very different ways of going about it, and our approach is largely based on the information we have.
I imagine many Trump supporters see him as a good person doing good things for the country. He is making cities safe again by mobilizing the National Guard and the military. He is getting rid of dangerous immigrants. He is bringing jobs back to the US. He goes after those who wants to destroy the country.
Others, who know a different side of the situation, see him as dangerous, undermining democracy, engaging in a politics of cruelty, wanting to create a fascist regime, and so on.
Most of us want the same. We want a well functioning society. We want jobs. We want safety.
And yet, and largely because of the information bubbles we live in, we see very different ways to go about achieving it.
HOW WE SEE THE OTHERS
If we are mostly unaware of these information bubbles, and what they do to us, it’s easy to be baffled by the others. We may see them as idiots, crazy and delusional, as cruel. Or, at least, as misguided and out of touch.
I know I am often baffled by other groups in society today. I am baffled by Trump supporters, because I am not familiar with the information bubbles they live within. I am equally baffled by those who vote FrP in Norway, which are somewhat aligned with the Trump world.
The more I set out to learn about their information bubbles, the more their views and actions make sense to me. I may still not agree. I may still see it as uninformed, misguided, and dangerous. But at the very least, I understand them a little more. I am less likely to see them as idiots, delusional, or cruel1.
In short, I am more likely to assume they are essentially well-meaning, and that their views would have been different if they lived in another kind of information bubble.
NOT ALL BUBBLES ARE EQUAL
This is not to say that all bubbles are created equal. Not all views and sets of information are equally grounded in reality.
Some is easily fact-checked. For instance, two Democrat politicians were assassinated this summer, and Trump and the Republicans largely dismissed it. Trump has bankrupted several businesses, including casinos, and he is a convicted felon.
Some is grounded in history and science. For instance, vaccines work and are largely safe. (In some cases, people’s bodies have a strong reaction to the vaccine, as they possibly would have to the actual disease, although that is – in the big picture – less of a problem than the disease itself.) Fascism doesn’t work for anyone, eats its own, and fails catastrophically. You may be upset about your challenging life situation – and seeing increasing wealth disparity, working poor, failing social safety nets, and so on. If so, blame the decades of neoliberal policies that brought it about, not the immigrants who suffer from the same system as you.
NOTES
- Although I still think there is sometimes an element of idiocy and cruelty there…! (a) If you support cruelty towards others because you think it won’t happen to you, that’s both cruel and stupid. It’s not less cruel because it happens to others, and it very well may happen to you. (b) If you think you know more about medicine and epidemiology than those who have spent decades studying it, that’s pretty stupid. If you distrust experts in some areas of life – like medicine, epidemiology, and history – and trust experts in technology and car repair, what are you doing?