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Before, only media companies had reach, so it was harder for false information to spread. It could happen, but it was slow. Now anyone can share anything, and because people tend to believe what they see, false information can spread just as, if not more easily, than the truth.

The idea of social media as just a way to reconnect with high school friends seems quaint now. The impact of social media today is a big tent, including not only networks like Facebook, but also forums like Reddit and video-sharing platforms.

Researchers looked at a group of 143 Penn undergraduates, using baseline monitoring and randomly assigning each to either a group limiting Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat use to 10 minutes per platform per day, or to one told to use social media as usual for three weeks. The results, published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, showed significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks in the group limiting use compared to the control group.

Yildirim

In 2018, 42% of those surveyed in a Pew Research Center survey said they had taken a break from checking the platform for a period of several weeks or more, while 26% said they had deleted the Facebook app from their cellphone.

Recently in the realm of commerce, Facebook faced skepticism in its testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on Libra, its proposed cryptocurrency and alternative financial system. In politics, heartthrob Justin Bieber tweeted the President of the United States, imploring him to “let those kids out of cages.” In law enforcement, the Philadelphia police department moved to terminate more than a dozen police officers after their racist comments on social media were revealed.

None of this is meant to argue for some sort of relativism of values or that everyone is equally justified in the choices they make. The displays of racism, sexism and xenophobia that this presidential election has brought us — often in the form of stories that express values associated with macho individualism — are to be rejected wholesale.

This is not to say that people who tell stories like this are necessarily wrong about their history

stories about ourselves express values

whereas if we’re trying to justify a dubious act to someone who is judging us (or perhaps ourselves), we might tell a story that makes us out to be without other recourse in the situation

The audience for these stories, of course, affect the stories we tell.

We tell stories that make us seem adventurous, or funny, or strong

value

Now, instead of just a story about me, we have a story about how I like to see myself, or perhaps how I like myself to be seen.

Here’s a story:I was driving home from work and a car cut me off. The guy was driving really slowly, and I wound up following him for half a mile.

Why is America cleaved in this way? Once again, looking across other nations gives us some indication

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American exceptionalism