Viral politics is fun but it makes me nervous. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I like my politics argumentative, aggressive, shouty, but wherever possible accurate and detailed. Viral politics is often the opposite. Short, overly simplified, snappy, and scant opportunity for discussion. What matters is views, hits, shares, likes. Don’t care how you get them, just get them! And that incentivises content to be ever more outrageous, simple, or funny. It also produces something else: the narrowing of political discussion, since virals tend to percolate within the same group: and that can close off discussion, making the converted more zealous, and more entrenched. We also took a look at how these virals spread on Twitter, by mapping them against the different political tribes.
Source: Viral memes are ruining our politics. Share if you agree