LR3 “Klasika” has invited a marketing communication planner to talk about the increase in the level of aggression in social networks, hostile comments, change of civic consciousness, involvement in politics through social network comments, public insults, discussion culture and, above all, the fact and place of the national concert hall. Dignu Degtjarova and cultural policy strategists Haraldu Matuli.
Orest Silabriedis: Recently, the level of irritability, perhaps even verbal aggression, has grown in social networks and in society in general, which could be seen very clearly when discussing the topicality of recent cultural life – the construction of the new national concert hall. Or have you noticed an increase in the level of intolerance in society?
Digna Degtjarova: I see it exactly the same way, and it has escalated in the last few months after the end of the state of emergency, when life seems to have returned to normal.
the stress of accumulating living at home, isolating ourselves and being constantly worried about what will happen now and how we will live now is nowhere to be found. There is a feeling that it is currently falling out of torrents,
and this is no longer just the case with “Delphi” anonymous comments, as was the case in the past – people are just doing the same on social networks.
Haralds Matulis: I also see that people are worried, and the fact that we have a different epidemiological situation in Latvia and on the surface everything seems unresolved, then calmer, creates a deceptive impression of peace, but when meeting people, you can feel both tension and nervousness. . I had no idea to link the hostile comments directly to Covid-19, but it’s possible that I believe in the rational person too much, and the tension definitely breaks out in this way as well.
Anonymous chatter is no longer interesting
Digna, you mentioned about “Delphi” anonymous comments. Have people ruled on social networks before?
Digna Degtjarova: Yes. And I think there are two important aspects to this. One is that opinion leaders were more communicating on the web, who could not afford to shout right and left everything they could think of. Currently, the number of users of social networks has increased – during the pandemic it has become especially large, because people have to somehow find out information, try to be in contact with others. And these people are not so closely acquainted with the label, which has been so far, and permits to say much more. But the second thing –
it seems to me that people just want to grimace and do it anonymously is not interesting.
Why?
Digna Degtjarova: Well, how long will you be scratching behind that anonymous name? Then you have to start each scabby again. On the other hand, if you start in this grumpy communication with your real name or at least a pseudonym, that is, with your profile, which also preserves the history you have said before, some image is formed, on the basis of which you can continue to build this scabies with others on other topics. .
You say – the number of social network users has increased. Has it really grown, or rather the intensity of use?
Digna Degtjarova: Both. Both. People are also starting to use other social networking platforms. (..)
Harald, how do you feel about social networking?
Haralds Matulis: I think of those hostile comments about the concert hall – I see a significant and positive element of civic activity in them. Namely, a person is really ready to say something in public with his real name. Even if he is very angry and just grazing, it seems to me much better than endless kitchen conversations about everything being bad.
It seems to me that the concert hall is somehow connected to the case of Mars Park: although in the end the state decided to build the National Security Service building, people had the opportunity to picket, stand with posters and feel that we are a force, we have a lot, and even if we are ignored this time, we are on our way to a better country.
I somehow see that not only do a large number of protesters coincide, but that movement has also, in a sense, given the feeling that this is the next time we will be right and object. So far it looks like a positive civic activity. The moment I connect my cultural-political experience and see it no longer as just a case of civic activity, I see that politics is already happening there and the rate is not about the process, but whether or not the concert hall will be and that
many people who express academic, very correct opinions are unaware that they are already involved in politics by the time they publish a negative comment.
Here, on this political aspect – is it not the case that the public simply did not appreciate that reaching a political agreement on a very important issue – this is a rare case?
Haralds Matulis: People don’t care, because no one asked them, they are offended… In this respect, the Ministry of Culture did not calculate anything either. I don’t know what they had been waiting for – that everyone would come and sing thanksgiving songs after the victory of the Latvian hockey team? It is clear that architects will always protest.
The public is offended
But now not for architects, but for society. Do you think the public is offended by not being asked?
Digna Degtjarova: It looks like that. On the one hand, I am offended that it has not been asked, but it also seems to me that it is simply another matter that can be lip-smoked and talked about again, because it is not that we have a great deal to talk about at the moment. Sports have largely been abolished for us, events have been abolished, and suddenly something has emerged that can have either a positive or a negative opinion.
Haralds Matulis: I will generalize a bit. Let’s say how to make the public want the concert hall to be built at all? It seems to me that this is already the biggest problem. I could say that we have democracy, we vote, and every year ninety percent of the public say that there is no need for a concert hall. But the question is, what do those ten percent do? I would say – well, this year no, next year no, but once in twenty years, the minority of society must also be given the opportunity to exercise their interests or their right to human life. I see the reaction of the music community – these people already understand that this process has not been really normal, but the fears that it will now be stopped again and nothing will be built are even greater.
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