Skip to main content

Leadership Challenges in the Horseshoe

May 8th, 2024 | 9 min read

By Jake Meador

One of the core concepts we have returned to regularly in our diagnostic writing about this cultural moment is that online networks have supplanted in-person institutions as the dominant forms of social belonging for most of our neighbors. One of the problems that follows from this is that online networks actually are better at spreading negative emotions than positive emotions. We are more incentivized to act online when we encounter content that makes us feel rage, fear, anxiety, and so on as opposed to when we encounter content that causes us to feel content, calm, or happy.

Login to read more

Sign in or create a free account to access Subscriber-only content. 

Sign in

Register

Jake Meador

Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy. He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he studied English and History. He lives in Lincoln, NE with his wife Joie, their daughter Davy Joy, and sons Wendell, Austin, and Ambrose. Jake's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Commonweal, Christianity Today, Fare Forward, the University Bookman, Books & Culture, First Things, National Review, Front Porch Republic, and The Run of Play and he has written or contributed to several books, including "In Search of the Common Good," "What Are Christians For?" (both with InterVarsity Press), "A Protestant Christendom?" (with Davenant Press), and "Telling the Stories Right" (with the Front Porch Republic Press).