Social Media is Greek to Me: How public forums exist online

Social media resembles reality, but not quite. It’s not a street corner where you can say whatever you want without consequence, but it is close. It is not a debate with someone over a kitchen table, but it’s close. Thanks to the development of social media, the world is greatly changed, but hauntingly the same.

This in-between space of ethical discourse has brought out the very best and the very worst in us. This sea change comes with its own problems and advantages. 

However, we are still trying to play by the old rulebook.

It’s all Greek to Me

Mark Zuckerberg has referred to Facebook as a “Public Forum.” The same was said about Twitter when a judge ruled that Trump blocking people no Twitter was infringing upon their first amendment rights. 

This idea of a public forum steps from the ancient Greek agora. Agora means meeting place. It was not only a market for goods, but a market for ideas. This place was located at the center of town. It was made to be accessible to all citizens. The Athenian Agora was the birthplace for democracy.

Some of the greatest minds (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) came to the The Athenian Agora to teach and to discuss.

So what would these great minds think of Mark Zuckerberg?

What went wrong?

How does Mark Zuckerberg’s public forum compare to The Athenian Agora. 

For one, it is privately owned. There community guidelines, new rules for what can be said. Why? Because anything a user says could implicate Facebook. Social media platforms censor users because allowing certain harmful opinions to exist on their watch will get them in trouble.

Another difference is the scale. Digital platforms stretch across the world. It is great to be this connected and get insights into new cultures. However, the sheer size of these public forums warps the community aspect of the agora. In Athens, if you came down to the agora and acted like a jerk, you would probably be condemned by the community.

This brings us to another key difference. With the scale of the internet comes immediacy of information. Now, if enough people notice you being a jerk in the agora, everyone will know.

This brings up another difference, that jerk doesn’t have to be in your agora anyway, He can just as easily find another one where people share his or her opinions.

The Digital Wild West

The use of the term public forum is a bastardization or at the very least, misguided. The internet is not real life and we have to stop pretending that we can play by the same rules.

This public/ private dichotomy has caused problems in the lives of many, especially young people. People who grew up with social media in their world, have formed their own cultures, subcultures, and rules for those communities. They are the pioneers who settled down on the edge of the frontier. They are capable, but they are wayward.

Existing in the digital world can affect your real life. As explained in the New York Times Article, The Secret Social Media Lives of Teenagers, the admissions of several Harvard students were rescinded after the discovery of offensive posts found on social media. 

Misinformation and propaganda is easily spread in social media. As posited in the book, Social Media Communication, “when are activist journalists not propagandists?”

The collision of these two worlds breaks down the rules of polite society. It is not Socrates’ Athenian Agora.

The “Conversation”

What makes for good discourse? What makes better people? How can we have all of the great parts of the internet without the bad?

Is the answer censorship? Education? Why are we leaving this all up to private companies?

I don’t know the answer, but I do know that if we want a public forum, it should be public; if we want a marketplace of ideas, we have to believe in it first ; and if we want an agora, it needs to be a community too.