Kristen Worden Disengagement in the Digital Age

Class: PHIL-282
Author: Kirsten J. Worden
Text: https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2018-0066

I. Core Framework & Goal

• Goal: Engaging in political discourse on Social Media (SM) is conducive to the Good Life (Eudaimonia).
• Method: Draws on Aristotelian Virtue Ethics: using concepts of friendship and practical wisdom.
• Benefit: Discourse helps acquire socio-political information & understanding necessary to live well.

II. The Problem: Epistemic Sorting

• SM is a Public Forum: A space for informed debate without geographical confines.
• The Dark Side: Users engage selectively with friends/sources, seeking views that confirm their own.
• Epistemic Sorting (Definition): Retreating from opposing perspectives within the same discourse space, creating minimal-interaction communities.
  • Data: Majority (83%) of SM users ignore political content they disagree with (due to frustration/incivility). Many (30-42%) change settings to view fewer posts for political reasons.
• Consequences of Sorting/Disengagement:
  • Hinders personal moral growth.
  • Obstructs information exchange.
  • Distorts individual understanding of the socio-political environment.
  • Prevents acquiring communal knowledge needed for cooperation/mutual understanding.

III. Necessity of Diverse Engagement

• Socio-political info must come from "civic friends" (non-ideal friends) in addition to ideal friends.
• Diverse Discourse Yields:
  1. Shared Knowledge: Foundation for mutual understanding, diminished discord, and capacity to act toward common goals.
  2. Self-Knowledge: Better sense of oneself in relation to the community/social world.
• Diverse Networks decrease misinformation (subjecting info to scrutiny/refutation).

IV. Virtues for Flourishing Digital Discourse

To overcome sorting, users must practice four virtues:

1. Inclusiveness:
   • Action: Deliberately forming a balanced digital network with diverse political perspectives. Actively engaging with content, rather than ignoring it.
   • Purpose: Facilitates the corrective function of friendship (challenging wrong beliefs for moral self-improvement).
2. Self-Control:
   • Action: Monitoring cognitive biases that cause selective perception (relying on pre-existing preferences). Resisting temptation to act uncivilly.
   • Context: Necessary in a high-information, primarily text-based environment. Must manage negative emotional reactions amplified by the online disinhibition effect.
3. Discretion:
   • Action: Knowing when/how to participate. Utilizing temporal flexibility of SM (not responding immediately) to conduct background research/fact checking before replying.
4. Audience-Sensitivity:
   • Action: Understanding the general character of one's online epistemic community.
   • Purpose: Anticipating responses to formulate content appropriately, which helps preserve unity.

V. Addressing Technology/Algorithms

• Algorithms (Algos) respond to user inputs (clicks, browsing history, queries, etc.).
• Practicing Inclusivity and Self-control changes these inputs.
• Example: Bypassing algorithmically-biased 'Top Stories' feed by manually viewing the 'Most Recent' setting.
• A virtue-based approach provides a satisfactory answer to problems of personalization and disengagement.