Nothing has changed how we live together as comprehensively as digitization – since becoming constantly connected and over-informed, we think, feel and argue differently. We are all impacted by this, no matter how much we actually use the new media. It is a stress test for society: when left unchanneled, excessive knowledge, speed, transparency and indelibility are not values in and of themselves.
This is relevant to democratic policy when it comes to the much-vaunted culture of debate. The conventions of social media have long since spread to other arenas, with politics and journalism already playing by these new, more merciless rules. Formerly recognized authorities are being dismissed by the dozens without being replaced by new ones; unceremoniously delegitimizing one’s opponent has taken the place of making a better argument. A functioning public sphere – as a marketplace of opinions and space for social clarification – only seems to exist anymore in fragments, if it still exists at all.
In her essay, Eva Menasse circles around issues that have preoccupied her for years: above all, the apparently highly contagious irrationalism and corrosive skepticism to which none of us is immune.
