The core problem is that social media platforms have been designed in a way that incentivizes polarization and the circulation of harmful content, leading to mental health issues and societal fragmentation.
Social media platforms are designed to maximize engagement, which often means promoting content that polarizes users, such as lies, false information, and offensive images, leading to increased division rather than unity.
Couldry suggests supporting federated social media platforms that operate on a smaller, community-based scale, allowing for better moderation and interaction. He also calls for regulatory changes to enable users to transfer their data and contacts freely between platforms.
The 'space of the world' refers to the artificial environment created by social media platforms, which has been designed in a way that allows for the global circulation of content, both good and bad, often leading to harmful consequences.
AI is both a problem and a potential solution. While it can help moderate content, it also exacerbates issues by enabling the proliferation of bots and deepfakes, and it reinforces the profit-driven business models of social media companies.
Human solidarity is essential because it is a prerequisite for addressing global challenges like climate change. Without solidarity, societies cannot effectively collaborate to solve these pressing issues, which are exacerbated by the divisive nature of current social media platforms.
The main argument is that AI cannot effectively determine what is offensive or harmful to humans without exposing people to vast amounts of harmful content, which is both unethical and impractical.
Couldry acknowledges that capitalism drives the profit-focused business models of social media, which prioritize engagement over user well-being. However, he does not propose an alternative to capitalism but suggests that addressing the toxic ecology of social media could lead to broader societal changes.
The second book, 'Corporatizing the Mind,' will focus on the risk of corporations redefining human knowledge and expertise through AI, potentially undermining human rationality and collective problem-solving abilities.
Couldry aims to address the fundamental challenges facing humanity, particularly climate change, by exploring how social media, AI, and the role of art can contribute to fostering solidarity and a better future.
Is human solidarity achievable in a world dominated by continuous digital connectivity and commercially managed platforms? And what if it’s not? Professor Nick Couldry) explores these urgent questions in his latest book, The Space of the World: Can Human Solidarity Survive Social Media and What If It Can’t?) (Polity, 2024), as discussed in a recent interview with the New Books Network.
In a conversation with Joanne Kuai), Couldry reflects on how society has ceded critical decisions to Big Tech, enabling these companies to construct what he calls our "space of the world"—the artificial environment of social media platforms that now shapes much of our social existence. He argues this delegation of power was reckless, with far-reaching and damaging social consequences.
While the harmful effects on social life, youth mental health, and political solidarity are widely recognized, Couldry emphasizes a deeper issue that has been overlooked: humanity’s decision to allow businesses to define and exploit this shared digital space for profit. In doing so, we disregarded centuries of political thought on the conditions required for healthy and non-violent politics. This oversight has jeopardized a vital resource in the era of the climate crisis: solidarity.
In The Space of the World, the first book in his trilogy Humanising the Future, Couldry proposes a transformative vision for redesigning digital spaces to foster, rather than erode, solidarity and community. He stresses that caring for our shared digital space is no longer optional—it is an urgent task that must be tackled collectively.
Nick Couldry) is Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. As a sociologist of media and culture, he approaches media and communications from the perspective of the symbolic power that has been historically concentrated in media institutions. He is interested in how media and communications institutions and infrastructures contribute to various types of order (social, political, cultural, economic, ethical). His work has drawn on, and contributed to, social, spatial, democratic and cultural theory, anthropology, and media and communications ethics.
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