Exploring Research and Perspectives on Social Media’s Influence on Modern Political Dialogue

Part One

Barrett, Paul, Hendrix, Justin, & Sims, Grant. How Tech Platforms Fuel US Political Polarization and what the Government Can Do About It. The Brookings Institute, 2021. How tech platforms fuel U.S. political polarization and what government can do about it | Brookings

In this article, members of The Brookings Institute conducted a systemic review of over 50 different studies and first-person interviews involving political polarization in contemporary America. Through this research, the researchers found that while social media platforms weren’t directly responsible for the more contentious nature in American politics in recent years, they did ultimately “exacerbate” the situation (Barrett, et.al 2021). The authors argued that the social media companies running these platforms have used algorithms that ensure people are more likely to engage with certain posts and content that would be considered controversial. As a result, social media users become inundated with radical and inflammatory views that can suggest to them that they need to adopt a similar position either in favor of these views or against them. The article did an excellent job of supporting their opinions by including real-world examples that back-up their theoretical framework of an argument.

Bolter, Jay. Social Media are Ruining Political Discourse. The Atlantic, 2019. Why Social Media Are Ruining Political Discourse - The Atlantic

This article explores one of the mechanisms behind social media that makes it so dangerous in terms of indoctrinating otherwise unaware users with radical views. In this case, the author focused on “associative linking”, a process wherein social media sites recommend content that they deem similar to that which users are already consuming and try to make it readily available for them as a result (Bolter, 2019). The issue here, according to the author, is that this can lead down a proverbial rabbit hole wherein people can get exposed to unsolicited perspectives and messages that are only tangentially connected to the content they were actually searching for. This is an effective argument as the author presents evidence of case-studies where people became involved with QAnon, for instance, because they simply watched a video that was otherwise about an unrelated and non-political conspiracy theory on YouTube.

Delaney, Kelsey. The Plight of Social Media: An Analysis of the Effects Social Media has on Political Discourse. Union College, 2021. The Plight of Social Media: An Analysis of the Effects Social Media has on Political Discourse (union.edu)

Hisam, Aliya, Safoor, Igra, Khurshid, Nawal, Aslam, Aakash, Zaid, Farhan, & Muzaffar, Ayehsa. Is Political Activism on Social Media an Initiator of Psychological Stress? Pakistan Journal of Medical Science 33(6), 2017. Is Political Activism on Social Media an initiator of Psychological Stress? - PMC (nih.gov)

Jingnan, Huo & Bond, Shannon. New Study Shows How Facebook’s Algorithm Shapes Conservative and Liberal Bubbles. NPR, 2023. New study shows just how Facebook's algorithm shapes politics : NPR

In this article, the authors discuss the results of a recent study published by Science Journal which involved a team of 17 researchers reviewing recently released data from Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta. In the data, the researchers noticed a common theme wherein people who identified as strongly conservative or liberal already were more likely to create their own “bubbles” on these social media channels (Jingnan & Bond 2023). In these bubbles, the social media users surround themselves with only like-minded individuals on their own pages and accounts. While the research team did not find a direct correlation between this trend and radicalized politics in terms of how people voted in the 2020 elections, there was enough evidence for the authors to argue that tech companies like Meta are allowing people to create echo chambers that have a skewed sense of perspective and objectivity. The article was effective because it did not entirely just blame tech companies but instead pointed out how nuanced this situation actually is.

Klein, Adam. Social Media at a Crossroads: Confronting Political Extremism. Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs, 2021. Social Media at a Crossroads: Confronting Political Extremism (georgetown.edu)

Manis, Emily. Study Suggests Politicians’ Incivility on Social Media Tends to Backfire. PsyPost, 2023. Study suggests politicians' incivility on social media tends to backfire (psypost.org)

This article provides an overview of the study released recently by Social Psychological and Personality Science, an academic publication that reviews modern issues in social psychology. The study in this case focused on analyzing the Twitter feeds of the two main Presidential candidates in the 2020 US Presidential election to see how public response changed if either candidate used language or messages that would be considered vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate. The researchers also gave a team of over 1,000 different Amazon employees with various political affiliations speeches from politicians either using “civil” language or incivility in their language and saw how they responded when asked about their sentiments about the politician (Manis 2023). The article was effective because it looked at the emotional and psychological responses people have to the type of language popularized by modern radical politics.

Moore, Elena. Gen Z’s Political Power: New Data Gives Insight into America’s Youngest Voters. NPR, 2023. How did Gen Z vote in the midterms? A new poll breaks it down : NPR

In this piece, a reporter for NPR reviews a 2022 study conducted by The Walton Family Foundation and other educational advocacy groups that asked members of Gen-Z what they thought about their early experiences being able to vote in the 2022 Mid-Term Elections. The survey elicited thousands of responses, with a trend emerging in terms of this demographic feeling undereducated on issues that weren’t readily discussed on mainstream or social media platforms (Moore 2023). The article will be useful for this research because it touches on the fact that a lack of awareness and education about politics may make them more susceptible to the influences of social media and can lead to skewed, subjective political messaging reaching them as a result.

Parker, Kim, Graf, Nikki, & Igielnik, Ruth. Generation Z Looks a Lot Like Millennials on Key Social and Political Issues. The Pew Research Center, 2019. Generation Z Looks a Lot Like Millennials on Key Social and Political Issues | Pew Research Center

A 2019 report from the Pew Research Center focused on what political issues each generation in America felt were most important to them. This was a groundbreaking study when it was published because it captured the early political perspective of Gen-Z while, at the same time, reflected shifting political ideologies for older generations as well. This was useful for the research being conducted on radicalization because it showed that younger voters were less inclined to engage with radical political views on social media and through politicians such as Donald Trump (Parker, et.al 2019). On the other hand, the study found that older Americans increasingly did engage with this kind of political discourse, indicating who a key contingency would be in allowing radicalization to become more and more normalized online.

Royer, Kiara. How the Next Generation is Reshaping Political Discourse. MIT Technology Review, 2021. How the next generation is reshaping political discourse | MIT Technology Review

Ruhl, Lindsay. Social Media Pulls Generation Z Into Politics. The Southerner, 2020. Social media pulls Generation Z into politics – the Southerner Online

Salinas, Rebecca. The Politics of Generation Z: How Social Media Has Changed the Way Injustice is Resolved. The Highlander, 2020. The Politics of Generation Z: How social media has changed the way injustice is resolved - Highlander (highlandernews.org)

Shaw, Aaron. Social Media, Extremism, and Radicalization. Science Advances 9(35), 2023. Social media, extremism, and radicalization | Science Advances

In Science Advances, Aaron Shaw discusses a recent study that attempted to determine the impact that sites such as YouTube had on the political and social views people maintained about the world around them. The study was important because while it did not downplay the role of social media in creating radicalized views among users, it also noted that those who became radicalized also likely held subjective opinions about race, religion, ethnicity, or politics in general (Shaw 2023). The article was also quick to point out that there have been strides made by social media companies in creating better ways to recognize and filter out radicalized content that previously was easily accessible on these platforms, showing that there are signs of improvement at the least.

Simonson, Haley. How Social Media is Influencing Gen Z’s Political Views. The UNF Spinnaker, 2021. How social media is influencing Gen Z’s political views - UNF Spinnaker

For this article, Haley Simonson and the staff of the University of North Florida’s Spinnaker school newspaper teamed with the university’s Department of Communication to see how students in 2021 interacted with political figures on social media. The article explained that for many younger voters in particular, there is a tendency to see politicians on mediums such as TikTok and Snapchat more and more because they try to connect with this youth vote (Simonson 2021). The article explained that there was apprehension from these younger voters about becoming too invested in these political pages and candidate profiles, demonstrating a healthy perspective on the topic but also pointing out a case that can be made for why it is actually the older demographic of voters, not the younger generation, who is more prone to radicalization on these mediums.

START. The Use of Social Media By United States Extremists. Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism Consortium, 2018. Use of Social Media By US Extremists (umd.edu)

This comprehensive review of connections between social media usage and radical political incidents in the US over the 2000s and 2010s provided some interesting insights on this matter. Instead of focusing on the political aspect specifically, the authors looked at how people were becoming radicalized on social views in general at an “accelerated pace” since the introduction of social media platforms (START 2018). The study also determined that people who were radicalized likely had smaller followings and fewer interactions with others on their social media pages. The implications of these findings would suggest that perhaps people aren’t coordinating as well when it comes to radical messages on these mediums, but the echo chamber they create allows the public to become radicalized at a faster pace in this day and age.

Stegman, Allison. How Social Media has Changed our Political Discourse. WPTV, 2021. How social media has changed our political discourse (wptv.com)

In this article, faculty from Florida Atlantic University’s Psychology Department were interviewed to offer their insights on why social media has galvanized so many Americans in recent years politically. One of the faculty members pointed out that social media was not only an effective tool to broaden one’s horizons, but also to limit them if need be. He explained that people can simply “defriend” or “block” others that they would have previously had to give the time of day (Stegman 2021). The psychological impact of isolating one’s self from those who have countering perspectives is somewhat ambiguous but the faculty members did make a compelling case that it actually was distancing people from one another rather than bringing them closer together, like social media was intended to do.

Thompson, Robin. Radicalization and the Use of Social Media. Journal of Strategic Security 4(4), 2011. "Radicalization and the Use of Social Media" by Robin L. Thompson (usf.edu)

Torregano, Taylor. Gen Z, Millennials Use Social Media as Main Source of Information War. Spectrum News, 2022. Gen Z uses social media as the main source of information for war (spectrumnews1.com)

Wafiq, Nailul. The Power of Social Media: Shaping Political Discourse in the Digital Age. Modern Diplomacy, 2023. The Power of Social Media: Shaping Political Discourse in the Digital Age - Modern Diplomacy

In this piece, the author explores the possibility that social media is creating a culture of misinformation when it comes to political and social issues. To come to this conclusion, the article explored the prevalence of hashtags as a form of spreading awareness about different social/political issues in America in recent years. The author determined that social media was a dedicated outlet for many bad-faith actors to post things that were blatantly false or manipulated the reality of situations regarding everything from the Black Lives Matter movement to Covid (Wafiq 2023). This article would have benefitted from more hard data to support the conclusions that the writer comes to, but it does connect with the overall theme of technology creating subjective viewpoints of the world.

Wu, Katherine. Radical Ideas Spread Through Social Media. Are the Algorithms to Blame? PBS, 2019. Radical ideas spread through social media. Are the algorithms to blame? | NOVA | PBS

For this piece, the author spoke with several tech industry insiders and analysts who were asked to explain why social media companies allow algorithms to create radicalized perspectives and content. The article concluded that this was the result of big business having innately different needs than that of an individual (Wu 2019). In other words, these experts pointed out how companies such as Google Alphabet and Meta were able to profit off of algorithms that generated engagement and the most engaging material on these platforms oftentimes involved incendiary posts that triggered personal responses from their users. This article will be able to offer more insights into the motives behind why people get involved in these radicalized discussions to begin with.

---

Part Two

In terms of what I have learned from this review of previous literature on the topic of social media and political radicalization, I think it’s important to first look at where I began this journey. When I decided to write about radical politics and how they have become more prevalent in American society in recent years, I did this because I felt like there was a clear culprit: social media platforms. I knew that there were going to be a lot of studies published that showed how President Trump used these mediums to create radicalized messages which helped him gain new supporters from freshly radicalized individuals like those who were involved in the January 6^th Capitol Insurrection. On the one hand, this was the case in some of my research and there was evidence to support the fact that Trump had created essentially a 21^st-century playbook for reaching voters and radicalizing them in an effective way.

At the same time, however, this research ended up showing me that the topic of radicalization is much more nuanced than I originally believed. I found articles, for instance, that showed how liberal social media users were also susceptible to radicalized messaging and that the polarization of politics was not just a one-sided affair in that regard. I also discovered that there have been some efforts made by social media companies and the government and regulatory agencies in the US who oversee them in terms of filtering out radical messages. This does not absolve anyone responsible for this problem but it gave me a new perspective and helped me to look at the matter from a more objective and comprehensive viewpoint.

Something else that stood out to me during this research involved the focus many researchers have had on how Generation Z, young people born between 1996 and 2012, responded to radicalized messaging on social media platforms and political issues in general. I thought there would be more emphasis on the Baby Boomers and the Millennials since they are normally at the center of coverage for these matters in recent years. The research I found, however, was more interested in how younger voters responded to these radical views and perspectives being shared on the platforms they use so regularly in their day-to-day lives. I was impressed to see that even though this demographic was more inclined to use social media than their peers of different ages, they had a more grounded understanding of how these mediums worked and were more discerning about the content that they engaged with. The older generations, on the other hand, didn’t seem prepared to adequately handle the disseminated information and messaging being passed down to them on these mediums. It would appear that they are more vulnerable to radicalization as a result because they don’t know what resources are reputable and which ones aren’t. This is a topic that could be further explored by looking at the specific issues that generate the most engagement for each generation on these social media channels.

With all of these new insights to consider, I am weighing how I want to approach the writing I will conduct about this topic. I initially planned to create some kind of letter that I could send to social media executives and which would theoretically map out how I thought they could help to prevent radicalization from spreading over their platforms. The more that I have read about the topic, however, the more I think that an informational paper would be more appropriate. I could conduct my own research with my fellow students and peers about their own experiences with social media and how it influences their political views. I could also research the data provided in some of these studies further and cross-reference them to see if any trends or correlations stand out to me. One of the biggest issues with fighting the misinformation that comes from radicalization involves collecting accurate information that can dispel these arguments. I don’t believe I have enough information yet to form a conclusive argument in this case but I think that if I can focus my research more that will certainly help. With that in mind, I plan to create an informational essay focused on highlighting the specific issues that are most important in politics and with the voters today and then seeing what kind of radicalization these issues have generated on social media. This can lead to a broader overview of the matter while still keeping my focus on the issues, first and foremost.