[bem94]

> This article makes far reaching societal claims with essentially no evidence. The evidence presented is in the form of "feelings" of various writers concerned of their own decline in literaryfocus.

From quite far down in the article, under "Concrete Thinking":

> As it is, we now have greater levels of at least superficial participation in political discourse, if not in politics itself, thanks in part to social-media technologies. Vast numbers of people contribute scantily supported opinions about things they don't really understand, validating the old saw that a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

[DubiousPusher]

You'll have to forgive me but I can still remember when millions of people listened to, called into and cranked each other up on late night radio. The existence of a conspiracy touting ignor-mob-us is hardly concrete evidence of informational decline.

It is possible that social media has intensified this problem. Perhaps more cranks can crank harder together now than before or perhaps not. But "just look at all the people on Facebook" isn't material comparative evidence.