SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTS

When Dialogue Disappears

I recently launched a small Reddit community called r/booksaboutfuturelife.

Text card © Øivind H. Solheim

The idea behind it was simple: to create a place where readers, writers, and thoughtful people could discuss books about the present and the future — books about artificial intelligence, social media, democracy, technology, ethics, human relationships, and the future of human life itself.

Very quickly, I received two short comments.

One said:

“This reeks of AI.”

Another implied that presenting my own books in a forum built around these themes was merely “self-promotion.”

The comments themselves were not especially dramatic. In fact, they were quite ordinary. That is precisely the problem.

Because what struck me was not the criticism itself, but the style of communication they represented — a style that has become increasingly common across social media platforms over the last decade.

Short dismissals. Irony instead of argument. Suspicion instead of curiosity. Reaction without reflection.

The result is that genuine dialogue never really begins.

The Death of Conversation

One of the deepest problems with modern digital culture is not censorship in the traditional sense. Most people are still technically free to speak.

The problem is something more subtle.

There is now a way of behaving online — especially in comment sections — that spreads a negative and conversation-killing atmosphere over the entire space.

Not through ideas. Not through thoughtful disagreement. But through tone.

A quick ironic remark. A sarcastic label. A dismissive accusation. A one-line put-down.

Over time, this changes the emotional climate of public discussion. People become more cautious, more defensive, or simply more silent. Many stop trying to explain complicated thoughts because they know the response may not be engagement, but ridicule.

And when thoughtful people withdraw, the conversation becomes poorer for everyone.

Reaction Arrives Faster Than Reflection

Social media platforms reward speed. They reward emotional reactions, certainty, and visibility.

But meaningful human conversations require almost the opposite:

• patience,
• curiosity,
• uncertainty,
• explanation,
• listening,
• and the willingness to think before reacting.

The architecture of social media increasingly pushes us away from those qualities.

This affects not only politics, but culture itself.

People often respond to texts today not by asking: “What is this person trying to say?”

But rather: “How can I position myself socially in relation to this?”

That shift may sound small, but it changes everything.

Communication becomes performance rather than dialogue.

The AI Accusation

The accusation that something “sounds like AI” is particularly interesting in this new landscape.

Sometimes the criticism may be fair. Some writing today is generic, emotionally flat, or mechanically produced.

But very often, the accusation functions less as analysis and more as dismissal.

The person making the claim rarely explains:

• what specifically feels artificial,
• what lacks human texture,
• or what in the language creates the impression.

Instead, the phrase itself becomes enough.

“This reeks of AI.”

And the conversation stops there.

The irony is that this style of commenting can itself feel strangely automated — fast, reflexive, formulaic, socially performative, and disconnected from deeper reflection.

Why This Matters

Some may argue that these are just small internet interactions and not worth taking seriously.

I disagree.

Because communication shapes culture.

And culture shapes how societies think, cooperate, solve conflicts, and understand one another.

If public discussion increasingly loses reflection, empathy, and intellectual honesty, the consequences will not remain online. They will gradually shape political culture, democratic culture, and everyday human relationships.

This is one reason why I created r/booksaboutfuturelife in the first place.

Not merely to discuss books.

But to create a small space where more thoughtful conversations about the future might still be possible.

The future of human life is too important a subject for conversations that never move beyond sarcasm.