The world is seemingly in crisis, with social and political upheaval having dominated the news agenda for several years. Much of the blame for this is laid at the feet of the social media giants, notably Facebook and Twitter, for creating platforms that fragment society and encourage extremism.

In the opening episode of Season Five of the Digital Download Podcast, I talk to digital technologist and former manager of the BBC’s DigiLab Euan Semple about the current social media environment and what the future looks like. We discuss how much of the responsibility to improve things lies with the social networks, and how much of that lies squarely at the feet of us, the people who use it.

Here’s what is discussed in this episode:

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