Effects of Social Media and the Internet Technology Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

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Effects of Social Media and the Internet
Decades ago, many commentators were speculating impacts of internet freedom and its democratic potential to society. Since we already experience internet freedom, many scholars today have now shifted their focus on how it affects our society. There are especially concerns regarding internet echo chambers that allows people with homogenous beliefs to confine together. These concerns intensified after the evaluation of the role played by the internet during the 2016 presidential election in the United States. Some individuals believe that echo chambers influenced how people voted during this election and contributed to the current polarization in the US. I believe these claims are overstated. I do not think that social media and the internet are to blame for the current social and political polarization in the United States.
The internet and social media provide a free space. Every person has the freedom to choose what appeals to their personality. Gladstone says “now the media cover the world like cloudy water. We have to consciously filter it” (411). This statement indicates that no matter what information the media provides, individuals have the ability to evaluate and decide what is better for them. It shows that besides the amount of data provided in media we have the role to decide what information is good for us. Gladstone expounds on this freedom by introducing the likes and prejudice argument. He says “Every new digital development enables us to better edit and augment our preferred reality” (Gladstone 414).