• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, January 11, 2017

Social media is a revolutionary form of communication. Like any other media, it has both good and bad qualities – which we’re only now beginning to understand.

In his farewell address, President Obama, who famously benefited from social media in his 2008 campaign and subsequently made it a central element of his communications strategy, chose to highlight some of its potential pitfalls and their broader implications for democracy.

Speaking in Chicago, Obama emphasized the risk posed by information bubbles, in which social media has played a role, along with other factors, such as regional differences and the rise openly partisan news.

He observed: “For too many of us, it’s become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or college campuses or places of worship or our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions.”

As a result, Obama believes: “We become so secure in our bubbles that we accept only information, whether true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that’s out there.”

Here the outgoing president touched on a related trend, the spread of so-called “fake news,” which some pundits claim influenced the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

In this worldview, increasingly polarized ideological positions are being reinforced by the spread of made-up news stories with a distinct partisan slant, enabled in turn, by the ease of publishing and distribution via social-media platforms. 

Per Obama: “This trend represents a third threat to our democracy. Politics is a battle of ideas; in the course of a healthy debate, we’ll prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them.  But without some common baseline of facts; without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent is making a fair point, and that science and reason matter, we’ll keep talking past each other, making common ground and compromise impossible.”

On that note, he encouraged people concerned about growing partisanship to revive older forms of communication, which may restore some civility – and perhaps even some actual exchanges of ideas – to political discourse: “If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the Internet, try to talk with one in real life.”