I believe these statement give better feeling about the proportionality of each media source:
Yes journalists are sometimes wrong, but most of the time they do their best to research a subject.
Don't go to comment section unless you want to loose your faith in humanity, there are some insights there sometimes but most of the time comment section is just full of angry people. (The Atlantic removed comment section altogether).
Social media (Facebook, twitter and the like) thrive on divisiveness, sensationalism and appealing to gut instinct rather then exploring any kind of intellectual idea. That is what platforms are made for, with the system of how things get promoted, shared and rewarded -- counting engagement instead of value to individuals and society.
Guess where all the advertising dollars go in this case, papers are loosing money because any kind of attempt to examine ideas is a lot less interesting for the advertisers because all they want pay money for is engagement.
How many dieting articles are written by the news industry?
==If these journalists are right and social media is so bad, why are journalists so prominent on twitter and much of social media?==
Because they have to be to make money, that doesn't help answer the question of whether or not they are bad themselves. There is a difference between a corporation (profit-seeking entity) and an individual (happiness-seeking entity). It makes sense that they may have different views on what is good/bad.
A common refrain is that they rant against technology a lot. Which is ironic considering where they are doing it.
I'd say media already tries (and succeeds for a lot of things) to make people think alike
I don't get the point of the article. People are divisive. Water is wet and anything having to do with people is divisive.
How many of these "social media bad" articles are we really going to get from the news industry? It's getting to be annoying, boring and exhausting. If social media is so bad, why is the WSJ and the rest of the media trying to force their way onto social media platforms? If these journalists are right and social media is so bad, why are journalists so prominent on twitter and much of social media?
If you want divisive, go check out the WSJ and NYTimes comment sections. Yet a lot of people consume products from WSJ and NYTimes.
What's the answer? No media altogether or force people to think alike?