Traditional media (and social media, and all media really) is MASSIVELY overvaluing opinions on social media because they can then use that to generate sensationalist headlines and in turn generate more clicks. And of course more clicks is more ad revenue and more revenue must mean that the article correctly mirrored general opinion.
What they dont understand is that, sure, ill click your article and read it (occasionally, because humans are curious by nature). But i wont be influenced or colored by it, rather ill be shaking my head and laughing at the dumb shit thats written. And then ill tell my friends about it and we will all laugh how fucking stupid some people are.
Its like a flash mob, sure if you happen to be nearby youll stand and watch. But as soon as theyre finished youll basically forget all about it and they fade into obscurity because they didnt have anything relevant to contribute to anything. (Which you understand beacuse youre not 5 years old) They were just there, in that moment, trying to exact a response. And to top that, that flash mob reached an insanely miniscule amount of people.
There are 1.8 billion people on facebook. 18k likes is 0.001%. A thousand retweets is probably even less of a percentage. To be honest it doesnt really matter how large your sphere of influence is when what you have to say is asinine. (Which again most people can deduce because they arent 5yo)
This is what all kinds of media is getting wrong. Clicks/likes may equal revenue but revenue doesnt equal general opinion. Rather it equals 99% of people snickering at how fucking stupid the last percent (or less) is.
Well thats my drunk cents. Come on.