Social media: Myth of like-mindedness The myth of like-mindedness must be completely rejected to avert heartbreaks when the gospels we preach on social media are totally contradicted by events that unfold on the ground
The myth of like-mindedness must be completely rejected to avert heartbreaks when the gospels we preach on social media are totally contradicted by events that unfold on the ground

The myth of like-mindedness must be completely rejected to avert heartbreaks when the gospels we preach on social media are totally contradicted by events that unfold on the ground

Delta Milayo Ndou #DigitalDialogue
The results of the US election in which Donald Trump emerged triumphant left many people reeling in shock because the outcome was vastly at odds with predictions from American media, pollsters, analysts and especially social media commentators.

It served as a poignant reminder of how similar poll surveys featured on the Baba Jukwa Facebook page had fuelled the perception that the social media popularity of the MDC would translate into electoral success in 2013 with local media running screaming headlines predicting a landslide victory for Morgan Tsvangirai.

The problem with social media, in the context of political activity or civic participation, is that oftentimes online communities get caught up in the myth of like-mindedness — the tendency to believe that their views are correct and represent the majority.

Rolf Dobelli writes that; “we frequently overestimate unanimity with others, believing that everyone else thinks and feels exactly like we do.”

This thinking is fallacious and is referred to as the “false consensus effect” and it thrives in interest groups and political factions that consistently overrate the popularity of their causes.

Nowhere else are groups of people afflicted with the absurd belief that the majority of people share their opinion as in online communities.

Online communities by and large tend to congregate around shared interests, grievances, passions and prejudices. Despite the Internet’s potential to expose us to different worldviews, most netizens tend to gravitate towards those who share and reinforce their worldviews to the point where they exist in discursive bubbles where unanimity prevails.

It is little wonder then when realities on the ground sharply contradict the popular opinions being peddled online, that shock and disorientation come to the fore.

It is a consequence of being wrapped in the myth of like-mindedness.

Using hashtags to gain acceptance

It is easy for many to throw their weight behind a cause if doing so carries minimum or no risk at all. If there is no personal cost to be incurred from engaging in activism — whether offline or online — there are many who step up to the plate.

With social media, many risk averse citizens find a means to express themselves and rally behind hashtags, digital activism and cyber movements whose messages resonate with them.

Nothing much is required of them by way of participation other than that they share, tweet, retweet, favourite, like and occasionally shut down anyone else who happens to hold views that are contrary to their own.

They become so preoccupied with asserting the rightness of their point of view and fortifying their illusion of like-mindedness by dismissing as “abnormal” those who do not happen to share their opinions.

For example, I observed the rise of a rabidly radical #ThisFlag clique which was extremely intolerant, belligerent and breathtakingly arrogant in their demand that everyone — in particular musicians and public personalities — rally behind the cause.

On Twitter, virtual stone throwers mobilised to target musicians who hadn’t tweeted using the hashtag #ThisFlag and demanded to know why they were “not with the people”.

The use or non-use of a hashtag somehow became the deciding factor in judging the political convictions of the musicians in question, suggesting therefore that the mere act of using the hashtag would in and of itself suffice as “doing something” as noble as standing “with the people”.

With such cyber bullying and coercion it is little wonder that many will profess to sharing convictions that they do not necessarily hold just to fall in line.

To paraphrase Malcom Gladwell, if online rhetoric and coerced digital activism succeeds, it does not do so by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice — like use a hashtag to mollify cyberbullies or gain the approval of certain online communities or online influencers.

Reflecting on the huge support that US president-elect Donald Trump managed to garner, I was persuaded that in all likelihood many of Trump’s ‘closet’ supporters probably opted for political correctness in public fora like social media, polls and other spaces where they could have attracted backlash, expressed their real wishes in the sanctuary of the voting booths.

Social media is a space where people who hold different views are frequently shut down — as if shutting them down will somehow alter their views.

Instead of using every encounter with those who think differently to understand their perspective and maybe persuade them of the merit of your own views, cyber mobs tend to go on the offensive.

I’ve referred to such attacks as “ideological bullying” where one thinks they can simply insult someone into seeing things differently.

I’ve never quite understood how such an antagonistic manner of engagement is meant to win others over.

How exactly is insulting someone for holding a different opinion to yours meant to encourage them to agree with your perspective?

We simply need to stop overestimating the popularity of our opinions and entertain the possibility that there are many more people who think differently.

The myth that ZANU-PF has no supporters

One of the most peddled lies on Zimbabwe’s social media spaces is that ZANU -PF has no supporters despite evidence to the contrary.

Huge attendance at the party’s rallies is often downplayed and dismissed as having been motivated by fear; the claim is often made (and rarely critiqued) that everyone who attends a ZANU-PF rally does so under extreme duress and was frogmarched or bussed to the venue.

The possibility that there are people who genuinely love ZANU-PF party is rarely entertained because such a possibility violates established narratives around how ubiquitously loathed the party is.

On social media, the myth of political like-mindedness is deeply entrenched.

It is so entrenched that phrases such as “singing for one’s supper” are often used to dismiss the views of pro-ZANU-PF commentators by suggesting that they are motivated by patronage but don’t truly believe in the positions that they take in debates.

The possibility that they might actually believe what they are saying appears to be far-fetched because it violates the false-consensus bubble many social media users like to live in.

I’m using ZANU-PF as an example of the false consciousness that can be cultivated by being so immersed in a social media bubble that one discounts other realities that do not conform to the myth of like-mindedness.

If the 2013 elections were anything to go by, and if social media was the yardstick by which we measured the popularity of a party, cause or candidate – then MDC should have romped to victory courtesy of the numerous Facebook polls and online chatrooms that declared it would be so.

As I have argued in other articles, social media is only a tool and it doesn’t encompass or inform every possible version of reality.

The myth of like-mindedness must be completely rejected if only so we don’t get shocked when the gospels we preach on social media are totally contradicted by events that unfold on the ground.

And as a starting point, I’d wager that you probably know a diehard ZANU-PF supporter or two who truly believe in the party’s ideology — and their lack of visibility on social media should not lead you to conclude that they don’t exist. They do. Just like Donald Trump supporters exist.

Delta is Head of Digital at Zimpapers. Follow her on Twitter: @deltandou

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