The world has witnessed a rapid growth in technology over the past one decade. There has been the rise in the social media platforms which has changed the way people do things. One area that has had a great impact as a result of social media is political communication. More than 60% of the Americans use social media platforms for one activity or the other, and this has changed the way citizens interact with their political leaders and how the leaders conduct political campaigns. Many studies have linked social media to play a central role in the political information seeking and dissemination both in the contentious and mainstream politics. People from all categories find information from social media, engage in discussion and share their opinions online ( Ahmed, Jaidka & Cho, 2018 ). This has been made easy owing to the ease of access, wide reach and the idea of a free democracy where people have the rise to speak out their minds. While social media seems to have made easy how people communicate, one aspect has been on the rise and under controversy over the years. There have been rising levels of rudeness, hostility, and lack of respect for the social media users. Despite the great role of social media in communication, it has made people lose manners, become rude and hostile by posting comments that seem to derail the morals and values of society.
Three out of every five people who use social media claim that they have med something rue to them on the social media. According to the survey by VitalSmarts, 78% of the people report an increase in rudeness in the virtual world as opposed to facing to face communication ( Shaw, 2013 ). The survey also shows that one out of every five people in the social media have unfriended or stopped socializing with someone because of their rude arguments over the social media. People have become so sensitive, and hatred has increased due to technology. While seated with a computer or a tablet and socializing, social media has made people to ignore the values of social etiquette as people can post anything rude or even abusing without being held accountable. With the help of modern technology, rudeness and meanness can be accomplished anywhere and at any time either from the family member, friend or even strangers in the social media ( Shaw, 2013 ). Some people might take pride in expressing a bad behavior in social media by engaging in an argument or discussion with a lot of feelings and aggression. Parents and teachers play a central role in the development of morals amongst young people as they grow. However, technology is slowly derailing away the moral values of the society by promoting rudeness and hostility while also providing space where people can verbally attack each other over a disagreement in the political opinion.
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The existence of a free democratic space for people to communicate and express their opinions freely is one area that has contributed to the rise in rudeness and hostility on social media. The existence of free democratic space is good for modern, mature democracies where people can engage in a constructive discussion in social media ( Shaw, 2013 ). The rise in the discussion of political activities has been a good improvement in the political and electoral system as a whole. However, people have always taken it too far by taking advantage of their free democratic space to speak out their opinions to make shocking and hostile comments on social media ( Noack, 2018 ). The closing of the online comments board of the community newspaper in Greeley, Colorado, is an example of how rude people has become on the social media. People are ready to post comments that are rude and insulting to other users of the social media without caring about the psychological impacts it could have on other people. Despite the importance of the free democratic space for people to express their minds, social media allows individuals to post rude comments that they cannot say on a face to face conversation. The theories of deliberate democracy form the foundation for the need to have a free public debate. People are free to engage in political talks and make out their points. Based on this freedom, mutual respect has always been thought to be a matter of a requirement for deliberation. Universal respect and egalitarian reciprocity should always stand as the guiding principle for deliberative democracy where even as people engage in free talks, and there is mutual respect for each other. Unfortunately, social media has lost it all as people do not show any mutual respect to each other in an online discussion.
Social media has stripped off the society of its manners and common decency. People are glued to their phones and tablets several hours in a day either chatting with friends or engaging in an online discussion ( Kuehl, 2018 ). People have gotten to be so mean and uncaring in the social media. While politics and holding different political ideologies may be blamed for all the rude comments and hostility in the social media, the extent of hatred in the social media has reached a level where the society has lost all its manners and decency. People feel they can make any hostile comments on their Facebook accounts because after all there are fewer chances that they will be held accountable. Some people seem to enjoy making rude comments and insulting others on the social media. In certain instances, a person may make a simple polite post on the social media, a post that does not attack any person or line in any political affiliation but the comments may be shocking. Individuals make rude comments on the social media even on the issues that should not involve insults. People are acting as if they are enemies and the expression of hatred in the social media leaves everyone wondering how members of the American society can decide to develop hostility to each other in the social media, something that they cannot do on face to face conversation.
There are rising rates of incivility and loss of respect for each other over the past few years. A survey by Insights West shows that the second leading cause of rising incivility and lack of respect amongst the young people is technology. Before the emergence of technology, people seemed to get along much better than it is today ( Sindorf, 2013 ). Insults and rudeness were very rare amongst Americans before technology came in. Because the major form of communication was face to face, one could hardly insult another person even if they disagreed over a political matter. This has since changed as a result of technology. People are hidden behind their cell phones and gadgets, tweeting, posting and texting with virtual friends while ignoring the reality of the world. When people communicate without face to face contact, there is much lost in the way people interact. While 85 percent of people aged 55 and over blame technology for our bad manners, 82 percent of those ages 18 to 34 say the same and 86 percent of those aged 35 to 54 point to technology as a culprit ( Sindorf, 2013 ). The effect of social media rudeness seems to affect the younger generation more than any other population. About 70% of the people who fall in the age bracket of 18 and 34 say they have written something rude on their Facebook accounts or posted hostile comments on their Twitter accounts. As people move towards 40 to 55 years, the level of rudeness on social media reduces. This means that social media has ruined the civility and moral values of young people.
There is a disconnect when people communicate in social media than face to face thus making it easy for an individual to be rude. Other scholars have argues that social media is not to be blamed for the rudeness of people because the rude posts are thought somewhere else, and social media only provides a platform to express the thoughts freely ( Sindorf, 2013 ). People can even launch a public attack on the social media against public figures they don’t even know. Some people can post information on social media and defend it even if they have scanty knowledge about it. Arguments over political candidates and campaign policies have become the core point where rudeness in the social media begins. While modern democracies require that there is a free space for speech, it is also necessary to respect the opinion of others even if there is a disagreement. This is the exact opposite of what happens in social media. No one is ready to tolerate an opinion that contradicts with what they think. The moment people disagree on social media over political opinions, what follows are rude and insulting posts attacking each other. Even the political leaders who should be at the forefront by leading with an example are the once who first start attacking their opponents with insulting posts on social media.
Social media has made people fail to recognize what inappropriate behavior is anymore and they seem to care less. People care less about manners anymore as they think that they have the right to say what they want on social media. As machines are increasing the humans’ capacity to multitask, they also boost the aptitude for the selfish actions. Civilized and appropriate behaviors are based on the principle of people interacting with one another and not human interaction with machines ( Letcher, 2018 ). Once people communicate with others through social media, there is no face to face interaction, and this increases the chances of one demonstrating a self-centered behavior. As a result, technology has made people care less about what they say on the social media while others take it as an opportunity to express their insults to others and demonstrate their ego.
In conclusion, social media has played a central role in the political communication between individuals as it offers a free space where groups can engage in a healthy political discussion thus promoting democracy. However, society seems to be losing its moral values and etiquette as a result of social media. Rudeness and use of insults in the social media have been on the rise. Because it does not involve a face to face conversation, people feel easy to post rude comments that are aimed at attacking others. The long culture of applying etiquette in communication is slowly getting eroded as individuals seem to care less about their behavior in social media. It has become easier to be hostile and rude on social media than on a face to face conversation, and as people remain glued into their computers, there is less respect and tolerance left as young people communicate. Free democratic space for communication is important, but this should not be an opportunity to allow society to lose its moral values of etiquette in communication.
References
Ahmed, S., Jaidka, K., & Cho, J. (2018). Do birds of different feather flock together? Analyzing the political use of social media through a language-based approach in a multilingual context. Computers in Human Behavior , 86 , 299-310.
Kuehl, S. (2018). Social Media has stripped us of our Manners and Common Decency . Routledge.
Letcher, D. (2018). Online political participation, collective action events, and meaningful citizen engagement: Social media use during mass protests. Geopolitics, History & International Relations , 10 (2).
Noack, R. (2018). Germany Trying and Failing to make Social Media Nicer. The Washington Post.
Shaw, G. (2013). Is Social Media Making Us Rude?; A New Survey Shows 80 Per cent of People Believe Cellphones and Tablets Are Making us Less Civil to One Another. The Vancouver Sun , 21 .
Sindorf, S. (2013). FCJ-162 Symbolic violence in the online field: Calls for ‘civility’in online discussion. The Fibreculture Journal , (22 2013: Trolls and The Negative Space of the Internet).
