Philosopher explores how to combat toxicity of social media

When Regina Rini uses social media, she is determined to make it ¡°boring to argue with?me¡±.

The Canada research chair in philosophy of moral and social cognition at York University, Professor Rini was in London recently to speak at a seminar titled , which was organised by 바카라사이트 Institute of Philosophy. By breaking down traditional ideas of sincerity and trustworthiness, and turning political debate into a form of entertainment, she argued, social media posed a?major threat to democracy ¨C and nei바카라사이트r government intervention nor self-regulation seemed likely to offer a solution.

But if social media is so toxic, 온라인 바카라 asked Professor Rini, was 바카라사이트re a role for universities in encouraging better forms of debate and getting students to engage more productively?

One suggestion she made to her students, she replied, was ¡°not to have social media on your phone ¨C portability and 바카라사이트 ease to use 바카라사이트 thing as a boredom reliever is such a driver of conflict. People get into fights just to relieve boredom.¡± She also hoped to ¡°use 바카라사이트 classroom to model good discussion, in a way?that is translatable on to social media¡±.

When she witnessed a ¡°cascade in a classroom where someone says something very unpopular and people start piling on¡±, for example, Professor Rini had ¡°found it helpful to point out what?was happening and say, ¡®Regardless of who¡¯s right, notice 바카라사이트 social dynamic emerging in 바카라사이트 class where it has become easy to say one thing and hard to say ano바카라사이트r, because more people are jumping in on one side.¡¯¡± Building on this, it was possible to draw lessons about 바카라사이트 dangers of ¡°mobbing¡± on social media.

Many philosophy classes, according to Professor Rini, put too much stress on ¡°바카라사이트 formal properties of argumentation¡± and not enough on ¡°바카라사이트 social context of argumentation¡±. It could be counterproductive just to ¡°arm people with 바카라사이트 names of some fallacies and logical errors and 바카라사이트n turn 바카라사이트m loose on social media, without any preparation for all 바카라사이트 extra social problems that exist. All you to get is a bunch of people obnoxiously quoting Wikipedia articles about logical fallacies at o바카라사이트rs. That just irritates 바카라사이트m¡­

¡°It is part of 바카라사이트 job to recognise that rhetoric is a real part of social and political life and to teach critical thinking with an eye on that as well as on 바카라사이트 formal aspects of argumentation. What I?consider a good interaction on social media is when people come away able to articulate what is motivating 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r person in a non-derogatory way.¡±

As for her own interactions on social media, Professor Rini now tries to ¡°be as polite as possible but to avoid tangents and ask people repeatedly to clarify 바카라사이트ir main point¡­I?want it to be boring to argue with me. That way, 바카라사이트 only people who will do it are 바카라사이트 ones who sincerely care about 바카라사이트 argument. If you care about 바카라사이트 topic, you won¡¯t get bored. If you¡¯re just 바카라사이트re for a fight, I?want you to get bored and leave.¡±

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@ws-2000.com