27 January

Social media is destroying societies. It sounds a big claim, but only a handful of years ago Trump used it to mobilise an insurrection on the Capitol, in the world’s most famous democracy. But social media’s damage goes well beyond that, just one more example here in the article. What social media does is dramatically accelerate the transformation of societies into giant high schools. Whether it’s buying and selling, managing a pandemic or climate change, the transition to electric vehicles - or whatever. The platforms allow people to bypass all of our traditional institutional expertise. The most stupid, nastiest things can become the drivers of social activity. Just like in high school. It’s not an analogy. Social media is the transformation of the world into a permanent culture of adolescence.