President Barack Obama published a warning against, as he says, “irresponsible” use of social media by influential persons.
The warning was issued while the former president had an interview with Britain’s Prince Harry on BBC 4 Radio this Wednesday.
“One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities. They can be cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases,” Obama addressed Prince Harry on BBC 4 Radio.
“The question has to do with how do we harness this technology in a way that allows a multiplicity of voices, allows a diversity of views, but doesn’t lead to a Balkanisation of society and allows ways of finding common ground,” he added.
Obama then gave special importance to the fact that people should get out more and meet face to face in order to really get to know each other.
“Social media is a really powerful tool for people of common interests to convene and get to know each other and connect. But then it’s important for them to get offline, meet in a pub, meet at a place of worship, meet in a neighborhood and get to know each other.”
“Because the truth is that on the internet, everything is simplified and when you meet people face-to-face it turns out they’re complicated,” he added.
While Obama was in the White House he used Twitter but not as nearly as much President Trump is using the service to announce policy changes or proposals, share his thoughts, and attack his opponents.
This is not the first time Obama has issued a warning for social media use. A month ago. he tried to tell certain individuals that they need to use Twitter more responsibly.
“Michelle was giving the general idea … that don’t say the first thing that pops into your head. Have a little bit of an edit function … think before you speak, think before you tweet.”
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