newYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Social media users are adopting increasingly radical stances for the internet’s attention, and the battle is spilling over into the real world, a journalist studying the issue told Fox News. .
According to journalist and documentary filmmaker Leighton Woodhouse, users basically seek to join forces with each other to gain online influence as a way to improve their social standing. But these policies are embedded in everyday political discourse and social order.
“As social media increasingly dominates our lives, these status races are starting to seep into and shape the real world,” says Wodehouse. News, Salon, HuffPost he told Fox News. “It’s very destructive to democracy.”
The real world is becoming “an extension of the discussions that take place on Twitter,” Woodhouse added. “Suddenly we’re talking about this on the news and talking to friends.
In the 1970s, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu theorized that “cultural capital”, like wealth, played an important role in determining social class. According to Bourdieu, cultural capital includes various social assets such as education, intelligence, speech, clothing, and appreciation for art.
“Cultural capital is basically the inculcated knowledge, tastes and mannerisms that allow a person to be successful to some degree in a given environment,” said Wodehouse.
According to Woodhouse, individuals can advance or hinder their social status through cultural capital, regardless of income. He said that journalists tend to accumulate high levels of cultural capital, even if they are not particularly wealthy, due to their ability to gain notoriety and be included in exclusive social circles.
“Your average junior-level New York Times writer probably makes a solid middle-class income,” Woodhouse told Fox News. has the cultural capital of
Texas school shooting shines spotlight on social media addiction and accountability
But people like Trump who have excess material wealth are both “part of the elite” and “excluded from the elite circle,” Woodhouse said.
According to Woodhouse, social media has brought about this battle for social gravitas online. Over the years, he said, cultural capital has shifted from wearing the right clothes and speaking properly to holding the right beliefs.
“The new currency for distinguishing one’s position from the next is what I call ‘moral capital,'” Wodehouse told Fox News. Acquired through virtue signaling, he said.
According to journalists, as moral capital becomes more competitive, people adopt increasingly radical positions to maintain their position in the social hierarchy.
“Moral capital has an inflationary effect,” Mr. Woodhouse said. “Say your position is ‘Abolish ICE’. At first, it seems very edgy. You have high moral capital to take this position.”
Increased social media use negatively impacts teen mental health
But as more people adopt certain beliefs, that capital diminishes.
“It’s like everyone starts wearing your branded sneakers,” Wodehouse said. “Suddenly they are not so special. So we have to come up with a more extreme position.”
“Then it’s like, ‘Let’s abolish the police,'” he added.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
In 2019, the move to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement took over social media as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including its zero tolerance policy. As a result, thousands of immigrant children were separated from their families at the border. The move to abolish the police became popular after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police department, but the position was not widely adopted among members of Congress.
According to Woodhouse, the phrase “trans women are women” spread on social media as well before becoming a general liberal topic.
“The discussions going on in Congress are just an extension of these ridiculous status races going on online,” he continued. “It’s surreal.”