Democratic impacts on the digital era: misinformation, polarization, and relativization of truth

Abstract

This article aims to analyze how the development of technological resources such as the internet and social media platforms can be used in a way to mischaracterize logics that are typical of democratic societies. Three phenomena will be analyzed: misinformation, polarization, and extreme relativization of truth. These phenomena have become so intense in recent years that they can be considered dangerous for current democratic societies. There are two basic premises in this work. The first is from Hannah Arendt, to whom factual truth must be undisputed and must be based on reality. The second is from Michiko Kakutani, who advocates that debates based on common facts are necessary for democratic regimes. Two countries will be analyzed in this work: the United States of America and Brazil. The research will be carried out mainly through a literature review, which will seek to confirm the hypothesis that democracy loses its strengths in the total absence of minimal and basic truths shared by the individuals in a society.