Blog #11- EOTO Reaction 2

    

 Let's take a minute to be real… we have all been in a situation where we may have said something different than what the group might wanted and felt a little awkward, over something small like where to go for dinner. However, what if the stakes were upped and we were talking about gun laws or privacy laws, how would that change our behavior? Some may believe they would speak out against the group because nothing could change their beliefs. Well, taking into consideration the concept of the spiral of silence we are more likely to go along with the group in order to not be considered an outsider.

    In simple terms, the theory suggests that as humans we fear self-isolation leading us to not want to be emotionally vulnerable in a setting where we don’t conform with the greater majority of the group out of fear of further consequences. The more we believe we are not in the majority, as expressed by the masses, the more we conceal our true feelings. This theory was first created by ​​Elisabeth Noelle Neumann, a German political scientist, who proposed this theory during the 1970s in relation to the Holocaust. She argued that the spiraling happens when we get further and further into our fears, to the point the minority opinion is never heard. 

    After hearing my classmate's presentation on this topic, I was faced with the contradiction this plays in social media today. We often view social media as a place where we are free to share our ideas and perspectives. However, as our social media has continued to advance these roots in discussion forms online have grown less diverse as our technology has advanced to promote more material that conforms with our ideas or beliefs, whether they are true or not. So if you had asked me a few years ago if I thought that social media worked to counter the spiral of silence, I might agree with you, however, now I feel we aren’t appreciating and respecting minorities or even different opinions.