SA-6: Distorted Beyond the Funhouse Mirror

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/distorted-beyond-the-funhouse-mirror

When you stand in front of a funhouse mirror, your image in distorted in some bizarre and unusual way. Whether you get huge legs or a giant head, you know a funhouse mirror is not meant to give you a true reflection of yourself the way a normal mirror does. But what happens when a society or culture mistakes a funhouse mirror for a mirror capable of accurately reflecting culture and society around us? What if social media gives us outsized views of polarization, extremism, or other distortions of ourselves while pretending to be a truthful mirror, and what if - unlike a normal funhouse mirror - those distortions we see in social media stay with us even after we've stopped looking in the mirror? What direction do those distortions go, and how do they change how we see ourselves and those we disagree with? 

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Purchase a copy of Chris Bail's "Breaking the Social Media Prism" and check out the Polarization Lab!
“Forget the Echo Chamber - Social Media is a Prism”  on FaithTech.
“What Is Media Ecology? A Conversation with Austin Gravley” on YouTube

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