social media for years I have been
posting what you probably all have been
posting which is food pictures wishing
people happy birthday and of course
sharing the ridiculously cute cat photo
and I’ve learned over the years that
social media is great for connecting
with family and friends especially when
we’re connecting socially but also it
can be used to connect with other people
in many instrumental ways such as crowd
funding efforts providing links to
educational sites and resources and it
can serve as a space for people to plan
events and to mobilize people around a
cause so all of these efforts are great
when you’re communicating with people
who have similar viewpoints but what
happens when they’re not so similar
recently we’ve seen people label
conversations on social media in
combative terms you seem them labeled in
terms of fights and Wars and why is it
that we’re seeing so many social
disputes on social media right now when
we think about this it could be because
we’re using social media for some really
important reasons we’re using it
personally professionally politically
and when we think about how we
communicate it can be fairly easy to
translate our communication style from
the in person to be online when
everything is agreeable and we’re
sharing our vacation photos but what
happens when things are a little bit
more serious there’s potential for
conflicting opinions when we’re talking
about serious issues and we may have
been trained if you are in certain
fields to be able to communicate online
but most of us haven’t
when we’re communicating online in this
way it might take a different skill set
and maybe because it’s new or because we
haven’t been trained there’s potential
for us to have some difficulties in this
communication and what ends up happening
is it looks like a fight or a war and
why do we fight well a lot of the times
when we’re scrolling through posts
pretty rapidly we don’t understand
understand the intentions behind that
particular post right we might make
assumptions about what the person is
saying or the meaning behind the post
based on their background or their group
membership and the minute you label
someone as being from a group that’s
different than yours we start to have
this sort of us versus them perspective
and inherently we default to in-group
favoritism it’s just what we do and as a
consequence if I am good and right then
you are bad and wrong and this is
exacerbated by the fact that when we’re
engaging with people online we’re not
really having conversations all the time
what we’re seeing is isolated comments
snapshots of points being made and ideas
being shared out of context and at one
particular time we’re not necessarily
having true dialogue so I want you to
take a moment to think what are your
motives for posting online is it to
connect with others is it to share
information is it to get others to do
something what are your goals and who is
your intended audience well for those of
us that are social justice researchers
we’re using social media for particular
purpose we’re using it to engage people
in socially responsible action there’s a
purpose behind every single post right
your purpose is to educate to inspire to
get people to act
and to act in ways that are fair and
just now there are differing opinions
about what is fair and just justice can
be based on moral legal or ethical
concerns and when we think about this
each one of those different definitions
has a different corresponding aim or
desired outcome and again when we’re
thinking about defining justice what
facts do we use to make these
definitions and these determinations
well there’s differing opinions
regarding what is factual and accurate
for example you might think that fact
should be based on scientific empirical
evidence and others might think that
factually based on lived experience you
can already see that there’s potential
for disagreement there so what do we do
we end up looking to others that are
similar to us and turning to others to
friend or to follow on social media who
have similar views than we do now when
we do this we’re not necessarily getting
the full picture we can default to
something that they call group think you
might have heard of and groupthink is
basically when a group values group
cohesion over accurate analysis then we
have that sometimes people are pressured
to conform to that group norm and their
ideas and their beliefs become polarized
or extreme and we’ve seen a lot of
extreme posts on Facebook lately and on
other social media sites and as a social
psychologist it makes me think have we
created a new norm do we have new
expectations around these posts we used
to say that you should be neutral or
balanced
and so someone actually said to me where
of all the moderates gone and when you
think about that maybe people who have a
more middle-of-the-road opinion about
things are remaining silent maybe they
are disengaged and so I wonder how that
will affect your social media presence
and I want to move to this this means
seem to say it all to me and basically
it says how to win a political argument
on facebook I will read it to you one
see a post that you literally can’t even
believe they could think that way let
alone actually say it to start typing
eloquently attempting to tell them why
they are absolutely full of it three sit
back and read it to make sure that it
really gets your point across so that
they will actually let it sink in and
ultimately change their mind for realize
there’s no way you’re ever going to
change their mind short of an actual
brain transplant five hit backspace
until your typing is deleted and move on
and if this exemplifies the feeling of
disengagement on social media sites you
can imagine why people join enclosed
groups at least in that particular close
group where people have shared opinions
your voice might be heard and at least
it won’t be belittle or invalidated but
when we join closed groups we are
seeking support and potentially we’re
avoiding negativity but it’s only good
temporarily because if our goal is to
move the world forward to shape tomorrow
to connect with others via social media
in a particular way with particular aims
we can’t completely disengage so this
reminds me of the first time I tried to
post something political on facebook
and immediately I would say within
minutes people had already started
arguing their side and it became so ugly
that I eventually deleted the post and
ever since then I’ve been concerned
should i post a political post on
Facebook where am I going to offend
someone not really sure what to do so
I’ve been thinking about how it is that
we can truly dialogue across difference
how it is that we can engage in
respectful conversations one of the
things that I think is important to
think about is what is the other
person’s perspective what’s their motive
for posting now some people might be
posting at a frustration they’ve been
holding on to this long suppressed
viewpoints and they’re finally just
ready to let it help and other people
might be posting out of shock and awe
they’re seeking attention they’re
convinced they’re right and I would
liken this to a shout from the car or a
drive-by comment right they don’t want
to hear what you have to say they just
want to have their say and other people
could be posting because they actually
want to raise awareness about an issue
but you can imagine how difficult it can
be for them when they’re met with
someone who’s posting out of frustration
or to seek attention so remember when
you were younger and you were told to
pick your battles well this is similar
in some cases you can truly engage with
people and in other cases you just have
to realize that maybe you’re not going
to be able to sway someone because their
opinion and their ideas are so extreme
best-case scenario you both have similar
motives you’re engaging on social media
because you want to learn something new
and collaborate in that case share your
opinions discuss the merits of the issue
you can even disagree but dispute
constructively focus on the ideas rather
than the person and most importantly we
should remember
it is so important to have these kinds
of conversations because we should hear
alternative points of views only by
truly understanding another person’s
perspective understanding where they’re
coming from can we begin to determine
and find sites for building community
and for coming together in solidarity to
move forward so I must say I do love the
cute cat picture I really think it’s
important every so often for us to sit
back and to relax and to share stories
with friends and to post really fun
things but if our goal is to engage in
social media in a way in which we have
meaningful conversations to move people
forward to shape a fair and just world
we have to remember that social media
can be an important tool for social
change and so I ask you how will you use
your online voice [Applause]