Opinion | Elon Musk, Vladimir Putin and the Insidious Meme-ification of War
The juxtaposition of images of a war with celebrities and pet videos in a social media feed is disturbing. It’s also desensitizing.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/26/opinion/culture/social-media-war-ukraine.html
But it’s important to note that this is not necessarily a natural social phenomenon. Rather it is the direct result of an algorithm developed by profit-seeking companies. “Social media is optimized for the quickest and hottest and most outrageous takes,” Max Stossel, an adviser at the Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reimagining digital infrastructure, told me. “It’s a process that’s really at odds with accuracy and thoughtfulness.”