As the US seems to be more divided than ever, what does the Mainstream media and Alternative Media have to do with this?

I mainly have questions and speculation about what is happening, I don’t really know if any of this is accurate, but I’m curious about the possibility.

So, in the past, when everyone relied on the Mainstream Media for all of their news, you could go to work, or talk to family, or talk to almost anyone, and either they saw on TV what you saw, or they didn’t see anything. Either way, there was no conflict, as it was either news to them, or it was what they believed. With the spread of the Alternative Media, and the fall of the Mainstream media, this is no longer the case.

There are fewer and fewer people getting their news from the TV, and more getting it from places like Facebook and Twitter. Now, I’m not a big social media person, and so it wasn’t till the last few months that I’ve spent more than a few minutes a month looking at this. It was around election time last year (November, 2016) that I actually signed up for a Twitter account. I have yet to post anything, but I do follow a few people. Some are people who I’ve paid some attention to over the last few years on Youtube, but many I’ve only heard of lately. What I do find interesting is how you can tailor your news to be exactly what you want to hear. So, if you are following someone who has an idea different from your own, and you no longer want to hear it, well that’s easy to remedy, unfollow them, and you never have to hear that different point of view again!! Do that enough, and all you hear is exactly what you already believe to be true. The problem with that is twofold. First, it keeps you from having to think, as everything you hear is exactly what you expect, and you don’t have to question your beliefs. Second, you end up living in an echo chamber that reinforces everything you believe, so your beliefs are strengthened and reinforced by repetition.

I’m sure many of you have heard of the term ‘Cognative Dissonance’ but are you familiar with ‘Cognative Inertia’? Here are the first two sentences from Wikipedia:

Cognitive inertia refers to the tendency for beliefs or sets of beliefs to endure once formed. In particular, cognitive inertia describes the human inclination to rely on familiar assumptions and exhibit a reluctance and/or inability to revise those assumptions, even when the evidence supporting them no longer exists or when other evidence would question their accuracy.

So, the main question is if this new media is a source of ‘Cognative Inertia’ for some people? Is that why there are so many younger people who just cannot seem to handle even listening to different points of view? Is the Cognative Dissonance so stressful that they can’t function, so they are asking for a ‘Safe Space’?

The problem I have with Safe Spaces and this inability to have a discussion on topics that are worrysome, is that there will be a lot of topics that will be pushed underground. The issue with that, is if there isn’t a free flow of ideas, those topics can end up in a echo chamber of their own, and not get the scrutany they should before welling up in some kind of display of outrage. This display of outrage could be many things, including violence, and I think we can all agree that talking, and even shouting if necessary, is much better than outright violence!!

Let me know your thoughts. You can find me on Minds.com @freethethinker.