Social Media as Political Cancer

It’s hard for me to get past the fact that the internet is the worst invention in human history and that social media is the particularly cancerous part of it. The evidence suggests it too:

Americans who spend at least five hours a day on social media are more likely to feel heard, but also more open to political violence and less supportive of democracy, according to a major new poll released this week.

But researchers can’t say for sure whether platforms such as Instagram and X are the cause or the effect of those views, and other academics have found social media’s influence is limited.

The findings come from a nationally representative study of more than 20,000 Americans that Gallup and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation conducted last summer as part of their annual survey on the ways Americans experience democracy. Of those surveyed, more than 1 in 10 spend at least five hours a day on social media.

“I think most of what we’re observing is a reflection of self-selection into who becomes a heavy social media user,” said Jaime Settle, an associate professor of government at William & Mary and the author of “Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America.”

“A certain kind of person is opting into spending a lot of time on social media,” she said, “and they may be people who are more disaffected to start with.”

The poll offers starkly conflicting data about the influence of heavy social media usage on Americans’ relationship with their government.

On one hand, the longer someone spends on social media, the more likely they are to feel that other people value their opinions. And more than 60 percent of the heaviest users say that protesting, donating money or attending town halls is an effective way to influence the government. Only half of people who don’t use social media find those forms of civic engagement effective.

But those same heavy users are far less likely to believe democracy is the best form of government. Just 57 percent of heavy users agreed with that statement, whereas 73 percent of people who use social media for an hour or less each day say democracy is the best form of government.

Sure, this might be self-selecting, but let’s be honest, people hearing their opinions repeated back to themselves all the time is a terrible thing. Even in LGM comments–a group of people who 100% believe in democracy–the comments lead to epistemological closure, obscure in-jokes, and the kind of culture that really resists being challenged. And LGM is about as least bad as it gets on the entire internet.

I will say this to everyone. Get offline. Go outside. Touch the grass. Smell the flowers. Remember that this is all the worst part of your life. And if you are using this or any other place to fill a gap in your life, maybe consider a different decision. Sure, talking politics and following the world in communities of like minded folks has its place. But keep it in its place.

And lest anyone contest that social media is a horror show, no social media, no Trump presidency. Hard to counter that fact.