The defining political achievements of the past decade absorb favored tolerance and empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) – and online discussion has fuelled them all,argues Steven JohnsonEvery new technology threatens to kill off some revered institution. But in the waning months of 2015, more than a few smart and tech-savvy commentators began suggesting a radical speculation: that the rise of social media threatened to deliver a death blow to civic consensus and even to truth itself. “The news brims with instantly produced hot takes’ and a raft of fact-free assertions, and ” Farhad Manjoo observed in the New York Times. “The extremists of all stripes are ascendant,and just approximately everywhere you look, much of the internet is terrible.” Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com