One of the more frustrating trends in public life over the past decade is how people who lead failing institutions blame social media for their failures.
A university president whose faculty have become political activists instead of educators and whose administrators multiply like rabbits will tell you that “misinformation on social networks” is eroding public trust in higher education. An editor whose publication lost its readership will claim that the real problem is X, rather than consider that the publication became boring, that the writing was uniformly uninspired, and that it stopped covering anything that mattered. A politician who loses an election will blame Meta algorithms rather than admit that voters simply did not like what was offered. A central banker whose institution missed the worst inflation in 40 years will worry publicly about TikTok videos spreading financial illiteracy.
The pattern is always the same. The institution fails at its core mission. The public notices. The people in charge, rather than examining what went wrong, identify an external force that is “polarizing.” The diagnosis is never “we did a poor job.” It is never “we lost our audience because we gave them nothing worth reading.” The diagnosis is always “bad actors are distorting the conversation.”
This is not new, of course. Before social media, talk radio was the scapegoat. Before talk radio, it was television. Before television, it was tabloid newspapers. Every generation of leaders has found a communication technology to blame for people’s loss of trust in them.
What is new is the intensity and the shamelessness. Over the last few years, “social media” has become a universal excuse that requires no evidence and tolerates no scrutiny. It is deployed reflexively.
The people who make this argument never seem to ask the obvious question: why are people on social networks so receptive to criticism of your institution in the first place? If your university were delivering excellent education at a reasonable price, no number of tweets would persuade parents otherwise. If your publication were covering important questions with clarity and substance, readers would not have migrated elsewhere. If the work you showcased were serious rather than trivial, people would still be paying attention.
Trust is not destroyed by social media. Trust is destroyed by poor performance, and social media makes it harder to hide. That is a different thing entirely, and the people running these institutions know it, which is what makes the excuse so cynical.
The honest version of the argument would be: “We used to be able to fail quietly because there was no mechanism for people to compare notes. Now there is, and we do not like it.”
That, at least, would have the virtue of being true.
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@JuridicoQue (2/2) Máxime cuando ese "periculum libertatis" desaparece en buena medida al aplicar otras medidas provisionales como son la inmovilización del vehículo en los casos como de los que surge esta conversación. Un saludo @JuridicoQue@Emma_Lebon
@JuridicoQue Conozco de primera mano los casos que se dan. Lo que me sorprende es que ningún juez decida mandar a prisión a conductores reincidentes... Y sin embargo se reclame que un agente asuma la responsabilidad de aplicar una medida provisional como es la detención. (1/2)
@msimon_cs@PalenciaVamos Pero qué datos! Es usted palentino, pero vive en la luna!
Ni se enteraba de nada cuando era alcalde ni se entra de nada ahora.
@msimon_cs@PalenciaVamos No le insulto: su incapacidad ha propiciado una gestión municipal nefasta que todos los palentinos estamos sufriendo.
Es algo que todos los palentinos vemos.
Por eso sorprende que tenga la desfachatez de hablar así.
@msimon_cs@PalenciaVamos No sé cómo tienes la vergüenza de abrir la boca.
Junto con Polanco habéis dejado la ciudad hipotecada (no sólo económicamente) por décadas.
Yo en tu lugar no podría caminar por la calle con la cabeza alta.
NEFASTO e INCAPAZ
@JMartiLector@MrtnzAlvrz Esa wikipedia que "le han montado" no sé cuánto tiempo lleva ahí... De hecho la última revisión ha sido para incluir un mísero enlace. El resto de contenido no ha cambiado desde Nov 23. Ojalá podamos debatir y formarnos e informarnos sin intoxicaciones absurdas como ésta.
@UOCrespon Hola! El pasado 31/10 solicite la EEP y desde entonces en el portal para consultar su estado aparece como "Pendiente", cuánto tiempo suele tardar? Tendré el resultado antes de hacer la matrícula del siguiente cuatrimestre?
Un saludo, gracias
Spain isn’t just sunshine, tapas, and wine —
It’s a country of human excellence.
Here are 20 achievements tied to Spain that will mark our history forever:
(a 🧵)
@JLPerezCalle@pilarnos@aegastro@sepdigestiva@GVAsanitat@geteccu "La gente" quiere soluciones que desde los servicios de salud NO se dan.
¿Se puede culpar al paciente con problemas digestivos al que su médico de atención primaria le despacha recomendando carísimos probióticos?
@tomasenlared@BorjaBarba@cascajares_es Efectivamente, es ridículo. Y en el caso de que lo quieran organizar haciendo equipos más grandes habrá momentos en los que no haya ningún bombero.
Por eso hace falta una plantilla mucho más grande.