When using social media as a source of gathering information, something that is often overlooked is the comments section. Although the comments section is oftentimes just your everyday fellow social media users, a lot of people read the comments related to said post and truly believe the information said. Majority of political posts have comment sections that just include people arguing their political side oftentimes by means of ignorance. Even though majority of comment sections are bickering and inability to agree on a common ground, many people who use social media for information gather opinions and information shared within these comment sections. An academic article written by Drina Intyaswati from Sage Journals included a segment on online education through social media platforms, " The results contributed to understanding the indirect effects of using social media on student’s political knowledge. This influence was mediated by interpersonal communication on social media networks. The political talk serves as a mediating effect on social media use related to politics on political knowledge among students." This exert from the article best concludes that by means of interpersonal communication through these platforms such as comment sections speaking with each other, information can be shared through each person's viewpoints on certain topics. Communicating through these platforms can serve as beneficial when done in a healthy manner to spread information rather than biased information to start a debate.
One of my favorite quotes was by this YouTube channel reviewing Bo Burnham and his comedy which looks inward a society a lot and how shallow it can be. What he said was "The best thing about the internet is that everyone has a voice and the worse thing is that everyone has a voice". I think its very indicative of how social media has affected out society into once that is full of people spewing out words into the world for all to see. Humans are creatures driven by emotion and I think it has led this the growing concerns with ignorance about the world and the actual reality of the world.
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