824 Facebook AND Twitter did it
OK, I
was only part-right: It wasn’t just Facebook (blog 820) that got Donald Trump elected,
Twitter was just as instrumental with getting the man into the White House. One could well say, "Doh! Of course!"
And that's according to his own words ... indeed, the Donald credits Twitter with his election, and one of Twitter's co-founders apologises and says, "that's a bad thing."
That isn't where Evan Williams stops with his analysis; he deems the internet broken. Why? Because it rewards extremes. Myself, I do not agree with the generalisation ... I think the internet functions very well, just look at Wikipedia, just look at what content is available to the discerning user. But I reckon he's dead right if you apply the statement to social media. Says he:
"Say you're driving down the road and see a car crash. Of course you look. Everyone looks. Social media (the internet) interprets behaviour like this to mean everyone is asking for car crashes, so it tries to supply them." TNYT.
Williams also says he was wrong thinking the world would be better if there was a platform for everyone to speak freely. I second that. Just think of all the idiotic comments you get via Twitter on Q & A.