Social media has changed the lives of millions of Americans with a
suddenness and force that few expected. The question is whether those
changes might invalidate assumptions made by Madison and the other
Founders as they designed a system of self-governance. Compared with
Americans in the 18th century—and even the late 20th century—citizens
are now more connected to one another, in ways that increase public
performance and foster moral grandstanding, on platforms that have been
designed to make outrage contagious, all while focusing people’s minds
on immediate conflicts and untested ideas, untethered from traditions,
knowledge, and values that previously exerted a stabilizing effect.
This, we believe, is why many Americans—and citizens of many other
countries, too—experience democracy as a place where everything is going
haywire.-- Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell, The Atlantic
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