Cause and Effect Essay : How the Internet Causes Social Conflict

영어 에세이를 쓸 때면 단골로 등장하는 Cause and Effect 에세이입니다. 최근 대두되고 있는 인터넷이 야기하는 다양한 사회적 문제에 대해 글로 풀어보았습니다.

 

 In modern society, a non-egligible amount of social issues occur in virtual spaces. Some argue that online disputes are caused by commercially optimized algorithms designed by information technology companies. Or, others think it originates from manipulating public opinion by political forces. It can even be dismissed as a personality problem. Despite the claim that these factors are the actual cause of frictions, conflicts on the Internet or social media are mainly driven by a chain process resulting from an individual's freedom of expression and crowd psychology.

 

 As a beginning of the process, several groups sharing the same interests are formed like a "bubble." These groups are called "online communities" on various websites, blogs, and social network services. Truly, the anonymous and interactive characteristics of the Internet ensure users' freedom of expression. Additionally, virtual space resolves the restriction in space and time. Therefore, a massive group that is hard to be formed in reality is possible online.

 

 Subsequently, the expansion of the scale of the community leads to "group polarization." "Group polarization" refers to the tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. "Spiral of silence theory, " published by a German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, points out that as the community gets enlarged, the silent majority increases for fear of alienation and isolation from the group, which intensifies the group polarization(Neumann, 1980). For these circumstances, online communities risk losing their self-urification ability. As a result, the community will continue to be extreme in terms of positive feedback, and more and more people will not be able to agree with their position.

 

 Naturally, those who cannot agree with the existing community break apart and pioneer a new space. More "bubbles" are formed, and countless uncooperative communities are floating on the Internet as the preceding process is repeated. For instance, on Reddit, the world's largest community service, a racist community that advocates white supremacy has been shut down. These horrendous users are told to have left to create their new website. To make matters worse, the social division continues on all platforms that can comment, such as YouTube and TikTok, even if they are not specialized community services such as Reddit. Above all, society results in fragmentation, a direct cause of social conflicts.

 

 Nevertheless, there still exists a point of view that online conflicts are due to selective and commercial algorithms. According to the Civic activist Eli Pariser, users are trapped in so-alled "filter bubbles" and fall into confirmation bias(Pariser, 2011). For example, if social network service such as Facebook continues to recommend only news users are interested in, it can be seen as a filter bubble. An algorithm is a factor that deepens conflicts, yet it is not a fundamental cause. It should be noted that the formal process is a phenomenon that can be occurred without any algorithm.

 

 In conclusion, the essence of the cause of conflict in the Internet space is not in the details of information technology companies nor manipulation by political powers, but in human nature and psychology of the mob. Due to the traits of the virtual space, crowded and free to express, social discords are inevitable. The number of users cannot be limited, indeed. If the social division continues, there will be no alternative but to limit an individual's freedom of expression as a countermeasure.

 

Sources :

1. Elisabeth, N. N. (1980). The Spiral of Silence. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

2. Eli, P. (2011). The Filter Bubble : What the Internet Is Hiding from You. London: Penguin Books.