We live in a world rife with negativity and division. Here, social media often amplifies the worst aspects of human nature. The Pew Research Center reports that 69% of adults and 81% of teens in the U.S. engage in social media, a powerful tool for communication. Yet, it mostly triggers negative emotions and contributes to societal unrest. As we witness the heated rhetoric and divisive discourse just around the elections, the potential for chaos looms large. And with unrest comes economic ramifications - a drop in GDP by a 1 percent point, translating to billions of dollars lost in the stock market.
The social scarring effect of epidemics, such as the Plague of Justinian, the Black Death, and the 1830s cholera pandemic, has been a significant factor in causing social unrest. These epidemics can reveal or aggravate preexisting fault lines in society, such as "inadequate" social safety nets or a perception of government incompetence. They can also widen the divide among different ethnic or religious groups or economic classes.
