Hardly anyone can ignore social media these days. No matter what age, no matter what origin, anyone who has an internet-capable smartphone is usually registered with a social media service.

Terrorist attacks, kidnapping attempts, epidemics or mass shootings: these are topics that many people are afraid of. At the same time, these are also topics that are fodder on social media. These topics generate interactions, but ultimately also fear and panic.

In this article, let’s take a look at the connection between social media and fears. What role do WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram play in this?

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What is social media anyway?

In summary: Social media refers to all platforms on which people exchange information digitally. Be it texts, images, video or audio content, the focus is on digital communication in all directions. Social media is therefore not a one-way street for communication, but rather a fairground. You can basically imagine the classic Greek agora, only digitally: people come together and talk, even argue, they trade, exchange things

The function of the participants is just as important, because social media means that everyone is an author. So it is a medium in which everyone can participate. The technical and financial hurdle is also important for this participation: social media must be easy and inexpensive (usually free) to access.

Social media and user behavior

Not all people are on all social media platforms, not all people use the same platforms. Nevertheless, you can make rough classifications: Younger people in particular are on more visual platforms such as Instagram or TikTok. Snapchat can also be mentioned in this context, but messenger has lost its importance.

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Facebook and Twitter play less of a role in this age group, but are quite popular among people between the ages of 30 and 55. However, if you go one age group higher, i.e. people between 50 and 69 years old, WhatsApp is a very popular means of communication here.

In fact, almost 80% of Germans between the ages of 50 and 69 use Messenger ( compare ). In general, WhatsApp is the most used social media platform, regardless of age.

Changed relations

Anyone who came of age in the last century probably grew up with very few channels. It was only in the 1980s that private stations were added to the public broadcasters, both on TV and on the radio.

At that time, journalists typically served as gatekeepers. Roughly speaking, this means that it was checked whether content was relevant to send and whether the content was correct.

At the same time, there were hardly any public reactions to the content and information from recipients. Sure, people talked in small circles, but there was rarely public feedback in the form of letters to the editor or reactions to an artistic director.

Social media has changed these circumstances. Suddenly all participants have become broadcasters. Due to the inexpensive technical equipment and the low hurdles, it is possible to send content at any time. You can write, send pictures or even stream live.

Of course, this means that the classic gatekeeper function on social media no longer exists. The participants now decide for themselves what they consider relevant. It can therefore happen that information that is irrelevant or even incorrect information appears in the news stream or in the news. On social media, not only senders and receivers merge, but everyone has to interpret or even learn the gatekeeper function for themselves.

The changed response behavior should also be noted: you can now react directly and publicly (depending on your privacy) on social media. This creates an uncanny dynamic.

Messenger & Trust

The messengers in particular stand out here, as it is difficult to determine how many false reports are spread. As described at the beginning, a lot of people use a messenger. Of course, one can argue about whether messengers can be included in social media (and this is also open-ended). However, they are added at this point because you can use messengers to conduct digital communication, exchange content, communicate in groups and ultimately stream. However, they are not as open as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

However, messages via a messenger like WhatsApp always have a more personal touch than more open networks. You know the senders, they are usually relatives or friends. So there is already a basis of trust.

This often shows that people tend to believe received content and forward it more quickly because they are more inclined to believe the familiar sender.

Don't say social networks

The term “social networks” is mentioned regularly. That's not necessarily wrong, but it is a partially misleading German-language expression. Social media is more like social networks.

The term “social” always conveys a charitable meaning somewhere, but social media has less of a charitable character. That's why we're talking about social media at this point, even if Mimikama otherwise doesn't like to use anglicisms.

Interactions count!

As just explained, there is nothing charitable about social media. Basically, almost the opposite: the goal of the platform owners is to bind users to the platform for as long as possible and to encourage them to interact.

This connection only works if the content does not seem boring to users. The result: fear, hate, tits and the weather report.

Ok, the tits are being banned diligently, but the operators are having a hard time with everything else. Nevertheless, it is no secret that scandals, outrage, even false reports and, of course, tabloid clickbait generate interactions and act like a magnet on social media.

The lack of a gatekeeper function is noticeable here, while at the same time the level of attractiveness (in whatever form) is further increased.

Whether provocative postings, crossing boundaries in expression, weak clickbait journalism or stoking fears, all of these are widespread phenomena on social media. Messenger included, of course.

Fake news, fear, hate

The lack of gatekeepers, high levels of interaction and the desire for entertainment naturally promote topics that also contain problems.

The high number of false reports is one thing (without them Mimikama not exist). The other is fear issues. Alleged kidnappings, illnesses, conspiracy myths, these topics make optimal use of the participatory culture on social media.

Don't misunderstand this: these topics also have their place in the offline world. But social media offers functions that an offline world does not offer. Sharing, forwarding and re-uploads are important instruments in the distribution of highly interactive content.

This means: Social media-relevant topics are also spreading more widely. Often there is no distinction made as to whether content is true or false. False reports or irrelevant content are also distributed for fear of harm.

The role of the media

Media have long recognized their reach potential on social media. But the ranges don't come by themselves, they have to be optimized. This optimization takes place via headlines and teasers.

This means: If a website publishes online content, it should also be optimized for preview display on social media. We are talking about the so-called snippet or teaser here. That means:

Whenever someone inserts a link on WhatsApp, Twitter or Facebook, a snippet is created that briefly represents the content of the linked website. As the owner of a site you are able to design this snippet. So you consciously choose a suitable image and shape the headline so that it looks attractive to readers on social media. In order for online content to be noticed, media optimizes it using the snippet. This inevitably leads to what is known as clickbait.

Clickbait does not have to be negative, it is actually necessary for online content to be noticed. However, clickbait should not be misleading or exaggerated, which is particularly common in the case of tabloid journalism.

With the help of clickbait snippets and misleading headlines, superficial user behavior can give false impressions. Net culture speaks here of “headline readers” who only get their information from headlines, which may provide false representations due to clickbait shortening. Anyone who only consumes headlines will not properly absorb complex representations, as explanations are usually more detailed than the snippet function on social media allows.

Political motivations

Parties and political actors have also recognized social media as a platform and are aware of the mechanisms with which they can spread their own content as virally as possible. You have to differentiate between official postings by parties or politicians and unofficial campaigns, or propaganda.

The latter in particular works with fear and hate to carry out disinformation or manipulation. By building fear, political systems are deliberately disrupted. Enemy images are created that are portrayed as scapegoats. Furthermore, deliberately contradictory information creates irritation among social media users.

We are familiar with these phenomena: After attacks or rampages, different information is spread very quickly that is deliberately false. The point is not necessarily that this false information is believed, but rather that it competes with serious reporting, which is ultimately also questioned. The results are sentences like “You don’t know who to believe anymore” or “Everyone’s lying somehow.” It is precisely in these moments that misleading false reports have achieved their goal. People are insecure, afraid and feel like they are in a helpless situation.

Panic in the age of social media

Social media is not the reason for this fear or panic. Of course, there were fears even before social media. However, social media as an interactive communication platform massively promotes the exchange of information. As stated above, information does not always mean accuracy, relevance or comprehensiveness.

We have seen again and again in the past that fear is a driving force behind forwarding content. You would like to warn other people and let them know they are safe. So it's not just fear for yourself, but also for others. And this is where the tools on social media come into play, but also the options on smartphones to share content beyond the individual platforms directly to other platforms.

The term “virality” takes on its very appropriate meaning here. Just like a virus, information can be forwarded, reproduced and transmitted. And that's exactly what happens with interaction-rich content that is often based on fear.

This content now reaches many more people in a much shorter time than when offline communication is used or linear media is consumed. Social media is always at hand and accessible.

The result, of course, is that there are no more bad messages, but rather that they are simply more present and presented more frequently. You just get the impression that certain topics come up much more often because they are widespread on social media.

Fears appear to be omnipresent due to their frequent presentation, but at the same time, due to their interactions, they have a greater reach than factual, sober content. This clearly shows that emotions are an important factor. And social media offers a large scope for emotions to participate, so fear as a strong emotion plays a major role.

And at this point let's also look at framing: with the help of irritating words, fears are created, topics are deliberately misinterpreted or presented in a tendentious way. Admittedly, you can't not frame, but you can influence the degree of framing and therefore the level of manipulation.

The mixture

In the end, we must not forget: Social media is not a homogeneous mixture, but a mixture of many different channels. Private individuals who publish information themselves. Media that want to generate high-reach content with optimized snippets, political actors who want to exploit the mechanisms of social media for manipulation.

Social media users can find themselves in all of these impressions. Confronted with content that they have to evaluate as “new gatekeepers” for themselves. At the same time, they become part of the game because of their own emotions. Whoever is gripped by fear spreads the inciting content. Thanks to simple mechanisms (just one click), this is not a problem.

The multiplication of fear on social media is therefore usually just a click, but the threshold between justified fears and hysteria is often quickly crossed due to excessive reporting, manipulative postings or omnipresent information.

get fear under control

Fear is not wrong if it is appropriate. But that also means you have to be able to assess whether a fear is really appropriate to the situation. Social media postings from anonymous sources, improper reporting or false observations can be the cause of fear that was ultimately not necessary.

But how do you get factual, sober information? The circle closes here again, as social media wants to bind people and offers more space for “exciting topics” than calm content. At this point, users are again asked and encouraged to slow down their own information consumption and also to evaluate which content (whether private, from the media or unknown sources) is really relevant. The goal should be to not let social media control you, but to master social media.

Fear on social media

 

 


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )