To clarify, I don't mean to say the US is looking like a direct democracy. I mean to say that maybe we can think of social media as a microcosm that shows what

To clarify, I don't mean to say the US is looking like a direct democracy. I mean to say that maybe we can think of social media as a microcosm that shows what direct democracy might look like. Topics going viral are sort of like issues coming up for a vote, and the result is that you see different consensuses emerge and different real world consequences (companies changing policies and making phony apologies for things, for example).