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The Ruin of the Digital Town Square

Across the political spectrum, a consensus has arisen that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other digital platforms are laying ruin to public discourse. They trade on snarkiness, trolling, outrage, and conspiracy theories, and encourage tribalism, information bubbles, and social discord. How did we get here, and how can we get out? The essays in this symposium seek answers to the crisis of “digital discourse” beyond privacy policies, corporate exposés, and smarter algorithms.

L. M. Sacasas on how social media combines the worst parts of past eras of communication

Naomi Schaefer Riley on why decency online requires raising kids who know life offline

Shoshana Weissmann on proposed privacy and bot laws that would do more harm than good

Nolen Gertz on misinformation, manipulation, dependency, and distraction

Ashley May on why treating others well online requires defining our relationships

Micah Meadowcroft on why we act badly when we don’t speak face-to-face

Andy Smarick on why the platform should be fixed from the bottom up, not the top down

James Poulos on how the fantasies of the TV era created the disaster of social media

Caitrin Keiper on finding familiar faces behind the black mirror