The recent elections in Germany confirm an already evident trend for some time: young people vote more and more at the extremes of the political spectrum, with the males who tend most towards the right and women towards the left. Why?

Ideological polarization

This is the effect of the growing ideological polarization triggered by social networks, whose algorithms viralize only the simplest and most emotional ideas, or the slogans. In addition, social networks promote the creation of “Echo Chamber”, spaces where everyone thinks the same way and what we feel is basically what we want to hear: what comes to our ear is nothing more than our voice that bounces on the walls. There is no more time or want to debate or deepen an alternative vision of reality: the only thing we want is to be right, because we are increasingly insecure, especially young people.

Simple solutions to complex problems

Yes, paradoxically insecurity feeds the extreme visions of reality, because what is extreme is often also simple and therefore reassuring. The extremist political ideologies detach themselves from the complexity of the world and the problems that grip it, being particularly attractive and comfortable. The mechanism is as trivial as it is devastating: the media are driven to give priority to negative and pessimistic news, because they are those that attract attention more and generate more advertising revenues. The overexposure to the dramas of the world generates strong anxiety in users, especially in the youngest, who will seek refuge in those ideologies capable of providing them with simple solutions, often attributing the fault of everything to a single social group, which becomes the enemy to be fought, a scapegoat. And since men and women are seduced by different narratives, they end up hating each other and attributing the fault events, extremely extreme, even more.

Moderates destined to disappear

There are still media and even politicians who try to propose more moderate interpretations of the reality, but are destined to extinguish themselves or remain in the shadows, since as mentioned the algorithms do not reward their communicative style. Insecurity also pushes towards dictatorships, because we let ourselves be enchanted by charismatic leaders, without concrete ideas but with great rhetorical ability. A survey by the Times found that over half of the young people belonging to the Z generation (the one most impactful from smartphones and social networks) would prefer to avoid elections and deliver all the power to a “strong leader”. In essence, politics becomes a burden that would like to delegate to someone who convinces them to know more than them.

Ideological epidemics

Social networks therefore risk turning on as the worst invention of the history of humanity, much more than the atomic bomb, since they promote the only epidemics against which we have no tool, no vaccine: ideological epidemics.