‘Social media is a cancer,’ says Utah governor

After gruesome video of the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk spread across the internet last week, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called social media “a cancer on our society right now.” He said we as human beings are not “capable of processing those types of violent imagery,” and he encouraged us to “log off, turn off, touch grass.” The Republican governor also asked whether political foes would “escalate or do we find an off-ramp?” He called that “a choice that everyone gets to make.”

Class discussion: Are extremely graphic, violent images on our computer and cell phone screens harming us mentally and morally? Can exposure to violence in movies and video games make us more likely to become violent or fantasize about it? How much real-life violence have you seen online? Does social media programming highlight violence to keep us online? Does it encourage political divisions? Cox praised efforts to “find our better angels” in politics. How did other politicians react? Could you “log off, turn off, touch grass?”