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![Can We Make Social Media Better?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/2d5a512f-b95b-478c-9ea5-ccd31f5fed8e/AIFStockHeroImages1.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1288%2C0%2C3377%2C3375&w=290)
Can technology bolster democracy? MIT’s Deb Roy thinks so.
![Free Speech in the Age of Social Media](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/8a992058-6f19-42d1-92b1-c2167a52b2a3/53007069854_e2071aa681_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=656%2C0%2C2624%2C2624&w=290)
If the First Amendment’s protections against government intrusion are a core tenet of American democracy, what happens when the chief regulators of speech are private technology companies? What is protected, who gets to decide, and what are the implications for our democracy?
![How to Stop the Spread of Fake News on Social Media](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4d5721de-027c-481c-9f10-d32ed5fbcfa1/AIFStockHeroImages.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=2005%2C0%2C3242%2C3240&w=290)
How are social media platforms contributing to the polarization and radicalization of the Internet? Can we reestablish control over our own information and digital society?
![Social Media Versus American Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/ecff0e10-0252-4638-8be0-e00347b160f3/29136464838_a9f0d469ef_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1120%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=290)
The Founders created a representative republic rather than a direct democracy, designed to slow down deliberation so that majorities could rule based on reason rather than passion. But in the age of Facebook and Twitter, new social media technologies have unleashed populist passions and accelerated public discourse to warp speed, creating the very mobs, demagogues, echo ch...
![Jeff Rosen 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a9ec656a-0ad7-4b34-8249-c84e5e61be94/43008444961_28ea795131_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=ac473e&q=80&rect=1844%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
![Jeff Rosen 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a9ec656a-0ad7-4b34-8249-c84e5e61be94/43008444961_28ea795131_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=1844%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
James Madison would be horrified to see how social media has helped unleash populist passions.
![Anti-Social Media and The Menace of Disinformation](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d4fd10f9-f22d-41d6-b92b-e8163999ea31/41278893090_6165c36bae_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1376%2C0%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
![#Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null7e8b9d9e-dfa1-4f42-9ba5-34a9921a871e/35170323670_0626ac205a_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=284%2C0%2C1032%2C1032&w=290)
In a well-functioning democracy, people do not live in echo chambers or filter bubbles; rather, citizens are exposed to myriad ideas and perspectives even if not their own. Constitutional scholar Cass Sunstein suggests that our current obsession with social media and our online friend groups narrow the scope of the kinds of daily and serendipitous interactions that might o...
![Teens and Screens: The Unabating Scourge of Social Media](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/8214379e-2ce8-4e54-ba3a-f2b5b42982f7/teensandsocialmedia.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=115%2C0%2C5501%2C5504&w=290)
America’s teenagers are facing a mental health crisis; 1 in 3 teen girls say they’ve considered suicide in the past year. Many young people, parents and mental health professionals point to social media as a main culprit. What does science say, and what action is being taken on the legal and regulatory front? And how can you protect your kid’s emotional well-being?
![‘Open to Debate’: Is Social Media Bad for Kids’ Mental Health? (live taping)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d3e16e79-2fab-49f9-b411-6028cb1a1c84/aif-062523-socials-listing.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C509%2C509&w=290)
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently released an advisory stating that social media can pose a risk of profound harm to children’s and adolescents' mental health and well-being. Those who agree claim that excessive social media usage can make children experience low self-esteem and negative body image, while cyberbullying and online harassment can contribute to incre...
!['Intelligence Squared' Debate: Social Media Is Good for Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/87aa1086-f753-4b08-85f8-d0669a8c82f6/43046028011_66919e8e09_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1120%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=290)
Platforms like Twitter and Facebook set the stage for a promising digital revolution, providing tools that helped foster global friendships, let new voices be heard, and served as the ultimate democratizing force for information. But critics argue that rather than uniting and informing, social media deepens social and political divisions and erodes trust in the democratic...
![Adobestock 189174166](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null110bdb41-c455-4bd3-a8bf-c64707fdec43/AdobeStock_189174166.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=ab287a&q=80&rect=1198%2C0%2C2739%2C2739&w=400)
![Adobestock 189174166](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null110bdb41-c455-4bd3-a8bf-c64707fdec43/AdobeStock_189174166.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=1198%2C0%2C2739%2C2739&w=400)
Last year Russia infiltrated the digital networks of federal agencies and many of America’s largest corporations, and last week’s armed insurrection on the US Capitol was fomented through disinformation campaigns on social media.
![Hate on the Rise — And What We Can Do to Stop It](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null0aafdf44-720b-4fc2-b72c-260d4c375c05/35650169715_420437084f_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=266%2C0%2C1068%2C1068&w=290)
Hate groups and hate-fueled incidents are spiking in America. The Southern Poverty Law Center, through aggregating media reports and gathered submissions from its website, recently catalogued 1051 acts of intimidation and hate in the first month after Trump won the presidency. What is the evidence of this rising tide, and what does it look like in our communities? What gro...
![Beauty: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/8907ca58-382c-4a32-9d9e-3be7bbc8acc7/52178761384_961eed9245_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=0%2C966%2C5504%2C5504&w=290)
According to myth, Helen of Troy was “the face that launched a thousand ships” — her abduction having incited the Trojan War. Most of us can only dream of inspiring such passion, though studies show American women will spend over $200,000 on cosmetics in their lifetimes, and plastic surgeons report they are seeing “catapulting demand for facial plastic surgery and aestheti...
![Aif Stock Hero Images social media](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/0b8ab8a5-2df5-4d26-96bd-f356ea4d55cb/AIFStockHeroImages2.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=4b7780&q=80&rect=2013%2C0%2C3242%2C3240&w=400)
![Aif Stock Hero Images social media](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/0b8ab8a5-2df5-4d26-96bd-f356ea4d55cb/AIFStockHeroImages2.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=2013%2C0%2C3242%2C3240&w=400)
Does it feel like the quality of our national discourse has gone down in the last several years? You’re not the only one who’s noticed. It’s not individuals who have gotten stupider, says NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, but it’s our collective intelligence that’s suffering. Institutions aren’t getting as much done, and leaders are making rash decisions under the pr...
![Corporate Leadership in Turbulent Times](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null6f2fcc4e-fe79-41b9-acca-fd8a3b9c45c7/AdobeStock_3670878.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=298%2C0%2C1600%2C1600&w=290)
As we look to the new normal, the first step in creating systemic solutions is to deeply examine how the institution you represent contributed to today’s injustices, says Prudential's Lata Reddy.
![Healthy Communication: How Truth Can Overpower Disinformation](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/02174c3f-94a0-4660-a498-2e3187fbc3d9/53810359739_2d413e9e55_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1154%2C0%2C3101%2C3101&w=290)
From the measles vaccine to the origins of COVID, the speed at which disinformation spreads and the harms it can do have become painfully familiar. Communicators are fighting back, leveraging the same digital tools as myth purveyors—podcasts, TikTok, X, and other social media channels—to share scientific information in new ways, engage diverse audiences, combat falsehoods,...
![This App Tells You When You’re Mean](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullc0b71621-37b1-46b2-a3f2-15da5542d339/AdobeStock_169689652.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=251%2C0%2C4000%2C4000&w=290)
What if when you posted something on Twitter or Instagram or another service, the platform gave you feedback? For example, “You just upset 10,000 people.”
![How to Talk to Your Teen](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/16b72010-78ab-4b45-bf73-a9b0da9a249a/AIFStockHeroImages2.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=1963%2C0%2C3377%2C3375&w=290)
Lisa Damour is a clinical psychologist, author, and a senior advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University. We caught up with her about how psychologists understand mental health and solicited her advice on how parents can encourage healthy social media use for their teens.
![How Movies Move Us](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/643c3fd9-f781-4f0b-a86c-1450c95d74a5/AdobeStock_225395390.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=875%2C0%2C2250%2C2250&w=290)
Has a movie ever changed your mind, the way you act, what you eat? Leads from Oscar-winning Judas and the Black Messiah and other media experts discuss how films are changing public conversations and capturing the attention of citizens and elected officials. Is the medium of the movie essential to societal progress? This panel will compel you to consider how films disrupt...
![Mark Zuckerberg Wants the Government to Regulate Facebook — But Not Too Much](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null7b217499-f4d8-437b-89b8-eab6562095fc/AdobeStock_124634376.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=949%2C0%2C3744%2C3744&w=290)
Zuckerberg believes government regulation of social media platforms is the best way to handle the complex moral decisions private companies are trying to make on their own.