How To Use Technology Ram

"The Twitter feed is not primarily a political forum, but is a place for people to express their political views," said Banerjee, author of "Future Porn: How Vending Machines, Robots, and Digital Media Will Reinvent Sex." "People express their anger at what is happening in Washington, they express their lack of anger and frustration, but also their desire for justice and a greater sense of connectedness."

Reflecting

The way that political differences are expressed across the country, Banerjee said that social media is more contentious, more divisive and more polarized than it was two years ago, two years prior to that and even the year before that. "It's hard to know how significant it is, but I think it's also hard to know how much it's driven by political differences or how much is driven by the personal reasons people use to engage on social media."

That said, however, one of the "important elements" to why that division is on display on social media is "because of the press, because of the way news is reported, because of the language, because of the language that the press uses, because of the language that political operatives use."

"One of the things I see on social media is this craving for social justice, this craving for attention, this craving for power. I mean the 'hashtag' we know is used as a verb by people on the left to hash tag something as a way of calling out the right for 'making up' stories. They are saying 'The president is lying' or 'Why do you believe that lie, sir?' And 'How do you respond to that lie, sir?' It's a way of arguing that never even gets past the first word."

For years, the national press corps, pundits, political operatives, and media organizations in particular have "made it their mission to remain in the middle, to stay above the fray, to remain neutral and not be partisan. The problem is that it's a myth to say that the press is nonpartisan, because everybody on TV or radio or in print is partisan, whether they want to be or not," said Banerjee.

"But it is a myth because it's not how they behave, it's not how they talk, it's not how they behave with their families or with their coworkers or friends or employers or friends and employers of their clients. They stay above the fray and that allows them to sell people this idea that the news media is in a state of nonpartisanship. It's not true.