A number of MPs say Canada’s democracy is under pressure from a series of threats — from social media to extreme partisanship.
“This sounds like I’m an old man. And maybe I am. But if I could get rid of one thing in society, it would be the cell phone,” said Conservative MP Stephen Ellis, who represents the riding of Cumberland-Colchester in Nova Scotia.
“Sadly, I use two of them every day.”
I often half-joke that Steve Jobs ruined our society by inventing the iPhone. He made the internet accessible to everyone by exchanging a mouse and keyboard for sausage fingers. Every Joe-lunchbucket can spread their opinions by smearing it on a screen, like a fingerpainting painted with raw stupidity.
(I know this is all flawed; you don’t have to tell me. Steve Jobs didn’t invent the iPhone. And if it wasn’t Apple, then some other company would have invented a similar device.)
Either way, forcing people to sit down at a desktop/laptop to access the internet added a slight barrier that demanded some modicum of competence. That’s been gone for 15+ years now, and look where things are at.
The algorithms that value engagement over everything else are more at fault I think. They push everything to more extreme ideas and highlight the worst of the world.
