All media is socially intentional, even if not intentionally social

[netmouse]

There are really too many of us on the planet, living too close together, for reading and thinking in isolation to be an effective life strategy.

The term 'social media' is a misnomer, in that there is no media that isn't social.

The audience of media is humanity, and all human beings are social animals.

Whether media is read, watched, or listened to, the audience interprets it within a social context.

And whether the conscious intentions of media creators are to share, connect to, influence, inform, educate, entertain, or persuade, the underlying goal of all media is to change society.

People understand, or fail to understand, media, according to their personal perspective.
Their mental models, if you will, of the world.
This doesn't just include their current social context. It has been inextricably influenced by how they have been socialized since birth.

One of the potential benefits of what we call social media is that we can invite others to help us step outside of or expand on our personal perspective when forming our understanding or expression of things.

This potential is severely undermined when people limit those social media interactions to being with people whose perspectives are unduly similar to their own.

Comments

[brainwane]

This potential is severely undermined when people limit those social media interactions to being with people whose perspectives are unduly similar to their own.

Yup. Yup yup yup.

[foms]

There are sources that I read specifically to extend the philosophy and culture of my intake. Sometimes, I bounce off some of it because a source's style is more alien than I am willing to deal with, at that moment. I also worry about my blind spots.

[matrixmann]

In that point... yes. As media are always intended to function as "make a position or viewpoint (or whatever content) more widely known".