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Stephen Kennamer's avatar

"And I would argue that 'social media' isn't any more social than television is." I'm so old I remember when there was ONLY television. Three networks. The entire country glued to the "boob tube." Parents worried about the plug-in drug.

But if you couldn't bear a celebrity, or even non-celebrity, female on the Tonight Show and you wanted to abuse her profanely and even threaten to rape or kill her and to reveal her address and phone number to countless numbers of other unhinged zanies, your options were to call the switchboard at NBC and hold the phone forever, only to be hung up on ten seconds into your rant, or you could write a letter to the woman c/o The Tonight Show, New York, NY. You were able to reach one or two people that way.

A difference in degree is a difference in kind. The speed and immediacy, combined with the anonymity, of social media has put us on a whole new playing field. Almost nothing about television was social, excepting the interchanges with the small number of people in the same room watching it with you. Social media is nothing BUT social.

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Grow Some Labia's avatar

Don't underestimate the contribution of 24-hour news, with the advent of CNN and an exponential increase in cable movie channels in the '80s. Before CNN, news came from half hour to one hour news shows in the morning and evening, and from the local newspaper, and the radio. If you wanted more news than that you subscribed to various magazines and periodicals. But the news WAS more balanced then, as the Fairness Doctrine was still in place, mandating equal time for political candidates, which Reagan got rid of because old-school conservative snowflakes were tired of having to listen to and present views outside their constipated bubble.

Because CNN had to fill 24 hours a day now with news, we got a lot more attention on the important stuff, but also a lot of stupid crap too, including people and stories which should never have been on the news. That was also the dawn of the beginnings of reality TV, like the live rescue of a little girl who'd fallen down a hole in the ground, and later, the OJ chase.

Nut groups like the KKK took advantage of this and created news with rallies & marches & so forth because they knew it would make the news. Whatever was outrageous and eye-catching leads. Or as Don Henley sang back then, "We all know that crap is king, give us your dirty laundry!"

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