Hell is empty and all the devils are in my social media feed – The Irish Times

loaded language: Compares scrolling Instagram to substance abuse, implying it is self-destructive or morally wrong.

“It’s hard to imagine – short of, say, knocking back a double brandy or laying out a lavish line of cocaine on the kitchen counter – a worse way I could have spent the first moments of my day.”

sensationalism: Uses emotionally charged language like 'terrible and lurid array' to frame a neutral list of events as disturbing.

“I witnessed a terrible and lurid array of aggravating things.”

narrative framing: Presents a curated list of conflict-laden moments without context, implying they are representative of social media as a whole.

“I witnessed a terrible and lurid array of aggravating things.”

fear appeal: Evokes fear by describing social media as a 'violent fever dream' that increases stress and distorts perception of the world.

“like fleeting images in a violent fever dream, I could feel my mood being altered by the experience of watching them.”

framing by emphasis: Downplays positive or neutral content to emphasize conflict, shaping reader perception.

“But what really made an impression was the sheer proliferation of scenes of conflict and aggression I was watching on the screen in my hand.”

loaded language: Describes social media content as a 'relentless tide of largely user-generated flotsam', devaluing it as worthless and harmful.

“a relentless tide of largely user-generated flotsam, the overwhelming tenor of which is one of aggression and conflict”

moral framing: Frames social media as inherently negative and morally corrosive without acknowledging its diverse uses.

“the overwhelming tenor of which is one of aggression and conflict, of people being miscellaneously horrible to one another”

outrage appeal: Uses the metaphor 'hell is empty and all the devils are here' to provoke moral outrage against social media.

“all of a sudden hell is empty and all the devils are here, jockeying for position on my hand-held screen.”

loaded language: Labels social media users as 'devils', implying inherent malevolence.

“all the devils are here, jockeying for position on my hand-held screen.”

fear appeal: Suggests social media is designed to make users 'more angrily racist', stoking fear of manipulation.

“precision-tooled to make you more angrily racist than you already are.”

cherry picking: Focuses only on worst-case scenarios without acknowledging counterexamples or platform diversity.

“chances are that video will be some or other scene of violence or aggression”

sensationalism: Uses apocalyptic imagery like 'avalanche of cultural wreckage' to dramatize the experience.

“There is a sense of being swept up in an avalanche of cultural wreckage, in the shards and fragments of a broken information environment.”

narrative framing: Frames information consumption as inherently manipulative, ignoring agency or positive uses.

“I had some apprehension of myself not as a person gaining useful knowledge about the world, but as a junction in a network”