Facebook is helping the left to eat itself

I hate Facebook, mostly because it’s full of other people’s happiness. I appreciate this makes me a terrible person, but it’s a bit like being at the wedding of a contemporary whose life has panned out perfectly, leaving you to reflect on your own inadequacies and failures. I know half the happy people on Facebook are probably dying inside, but that’s no consolation.

I’ve long suspected that the site is terrible for people’s mental health, but it’s probably also terrible for the political process, too, helping to drive polarisation, especially in the United States. It’s something that people really don’t appreciate the danger of. Normal decent people who would be horrified by the idea of religious sectarianism fail to appreciate how similar political sectarianism is, and how new media is accelerating it. This piece by the Wall Street Journal shows how a ‘Liberal’ Facebook feed and a ‘Conservative’ Facebook feed can exist.

Being a metropolitan conservative, my Facebook is slightly more like the Liberal blue feed, which is another reason why it’s such a painful experience: watching people I like or even love linking to an article by Frankie Boyle with YES, HE NAILS IT posted underneath really is excruciating.