Social media can be very effective in creating movements. In the beginning, that is how I first got attention. Greta Thunberg
The World is changing. Everything in the digital universe, everything, is connected to everything else. Sidney Harman
I think social media has taken over our generation. It’s a big part of our lives, and it’s kind of sad. Kendall Jenner, social media influencer with 297 million followers
Harris v Trump was the first influencer election. TikTok users, not even old enough to vote, trolled the election and disrupted Trump rallies. Social media thus brought about the taking of power out of the hands of institutionalized politics, giving it to a new generation of activists. Democracy in action.
But there’s also misinformation, toxicity, and hate that social media facilitates. Brain rot (the perceived mental degradation caused by consuming excessive amounts of low-quality, mindless online content) is now the Oxford University Word of the Year, 2024.
Social media is a digital universe. It can be a tool of empowerment; it is credited with bringing on a health crisis for an entire generation; it can be dangerous; it can enlighten and change dark corners of our world. We invite you, our polymath community, to join our guest experts who examine social media in its myriad elements. Your engagement, your experiences, your insights, your humanity are all needed to further our understanding of what is at stake in the new meta-worlds we inhabit.
