Social Media: The New Mob

The statement ” The masses are always right” has been tried and tested and found to be not necessarily true. What constitutes a norm or a rule is not the amount of people who say so, but what the rule says. People can be led, and there are elements in being led by the masses that both excuse the individual for his or her acts, and have a blind eye to what is right.

Social media judges; well, so it seems, but it is more correct to say that people use social media to be aroused into rash judgment, and this is shared as a massive attack. In this way the individual becomes part of the masses, and in the same way the individual becomes part of the mob. The mob can lynch, and this force in the tapestry of social controls may cause real action. This is a force that may strip someone of his or her job, ostracize from society, mete out a punishment, which is not based on any written law, but simply on the sentiment of the mob.

It surprises me that we hold to this standard in a democracy.

Are we truly to be ruled by the mob? Do we set aside law and order when the forces in the mob are too powerful? Do we simply give in and agree?

What is a democracy, then? It is a majority rule, but not arbitrary rule. One of the foundations of this democracy is the agreement upon common laws and regulations. The formal social control cannot be set aside in favour of the angry mob.