[LINK] How social media platforms can reduce polarization

[Kim Holburn]

Long and interesting read

https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-social-media-platforms-can-reduce-polarization/


How social media platforms can reduce polarization

....

Yet there is nonetheless a growing body of scholarship that suggests social media applications are indeed fueling polarization, 
especially in established democracies <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01460-1>. For instance, Jamie Settle’s work 
demonstrates, through a combination of surveys and experiments, that affective polarization is likely to rise 
<https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/frenemies/00D051D46BC4CDB2D322EE6A1CEA6791> when social media users encounter content with 
partisan cues, even if the content is not explicitly political. A 2020 study 
<https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Faer.20190658&utm_campaign=Johannes> by Hunt Allcott and colleagues echoes these 
concerns. The authors asked some participants to refrain from using Facebook for four weeks. Afterward, these participants reported 
holding less polarized political views than those who had not been asked to refrain from using Facebook. Deactivating Facebook also 
made people less hostile toward “the other party,” although that was only the case for those who get news content on Facebook regularly.


-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
+61 404072753
mailto:kim at holburn.net   aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn  - PGP Public Key on request