Resolve: A Platform for Civil Dialogue

The way in which we communicate has forever changed. In person interactions are slowly being replaced by digital experiences that we share with other users. Even after the Covid-19 crisis, some companies will continue to have employees work remotely. This will further push our worlds in being shaped by the actions that occur online. As this continues, it will become increasingly important that we pay attention to the online communities that we create. Communities that reside on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and more will continue to grow in prevalence in our day to day lives. We have seen how communities can organize and have real world impacts through their interactions with each other. R/Wallstreetbets is an online community on Reddit that caused the price of multiple stocks to skyrocket by all agreeing to buy as a collective group. This gained national attention and it was focused on how an online community was able to manipulate the market, but what was even more intriguing is how it represents the future of communication. It is easy to forget that the interactions we have online are with real people on the other side of their username and profile photo. We are consistently conversing with strangers as we leave comments on posts and reply to certain users. It is incredible that we are able to network with just about any user that is on a social platform. Despite this incredible ability to connect, we live in a world that is also divided and polarized. This is a result of using platforms that create filter bubbles and work to gain your attention to sell advertisements. These sites are largely unfocused and play host to both viral videos and social justice awareness. This thesis is focused on proving the concept of a new platform’s ability to resolve these issues. In this paper I will describe to you the problems that have arisen due to large social media companies, my proposal for a platform dedicated to resolving these problems, and the validity and testing of this proposed platform.