Architectures of Separation

Discussion

Otto Scharmer:

"Architectures of separation amplify polarization, tribalism, and hate. Just like post-truth politics, these divisive architectures can be witnessed around the world. Many societies have already shattered into polarized, hostile subcommunities that no longer have the capacity to talk to each other. Two specific examples of these separation structures are (1) the filter bubbles created through social media and (2) the issue of minority rule in the United States.

Filter bubbles arise from the algorithms that determine the content in our social medial feeds. For clear presentations of this, watch the Netflix documentaries “The Social Dilemma” and “The Great Hack.” These algorithms are designed to maximize user engagement (glue you to your screen) by activating the emotions of hate, anger, and fear.

The deeper issue at hand is what Harvard’s Shoshana Zuboff calls “epistemological inequality.”

Users and their social media companies can be thought of as looking at each other through a one-way mirror: the social media company can see everything about its users, but the users see nothing of what the company is doing with their personal data. That’s the reality of social media today." (https://medium.com/presencing-institute-blog/the-darkest-hour-is-just-before-the-dawn-cc4df0749108)