The Political Division

Xinyu Yang

16 November 2023

While living in an era filled with technological advancement and innovations, people are spending an increasing amount of time on their devices and engaging with social media. According to data collected by Apple, a typical phone owner pulls out their phone and uses it some 80 times a day (Carr 597). The immense use of social media leads to many questions revolving around the effects and consequences of these new inventions. 

With its massive influence and frequent use, it is inevitable that social media ties into our society and politics. Authors including Nicholas Brody and Kenneth Goldsmith praise social media’s ability to fulfill people’s need for communication and engagement with other human beings worldwide while dismissing the skepticism people express toward the internet (584). However, the concerns surrounding social media should not be disregarded as Carole Cadwalladr points out that fake news is all over the media, misleading people and demonstrating technology companies’ powers to disrupt politics (627). This view is shared by Agustin Fuentes, who found that information people absorb from social media leads to aggression on those platforms. Furthered by experts in the documentary film The Social Dilemma, social media threatens to alter the democracy people believe in, resulting in chaos, war, and the destruction of human civilization. Even though social media helps people socialize and connect with the rest of the world, it divides them politically by spreading fake news, causing aggression, and undermining democracy. 

Social media is used so frequently that people stop questioning the negative influence of these applications. Authors may claim that people are skeptical towards social media as they are of any new invention such as when books were first introduced to society (Goldsmith 584) and that skepticism will subside after a period of time. Furthermore, my classmates in highschool have grown extremely invested in social media that they refuse to believe in the negative effects of it, and profusely defend the applications when I tell them about the negative influence that they have on people. However, the damaging impacts of social media should not be ignored. Even technology experts assert that “social media is unprecedented” (Tristan Harris qtd. In Orlowski). Social media is not comparable to other inventions and is unseen in history. Its negative impacts caused by news and user actions online should not be ignored due to its capability of causing chaos and destruction.

    Fake news spreads rapidly on social media. Upon exploring and researching social media, Carole Cadwalladr finds that “social media acts as a platform that concentrates fake information from websites and then spreads them to all device users” (626). Social media is a place where distorted information is displayed to users all around the world and perceived and absorbed by minds intentionally or not. According to an MIT study, “fake news on Twitter spreads six times faster than true news” (Tristan Harris qtd. In Orlowski). The abundance of social media applications along with their accessibility highlights the large scope and magnitude of the impact of social media as a major source of misinformation. Users are unable to parse truth from fiction and ultimately form opinions based on false data. 

    The presence of fake news on social media manipulates personal views. The human-computer interface expert Aza Raskin asserts that fake news “tilts the floor and changes what billions of people think and do” (qtd. In Orlowski). Along with the MIT study Orlowski presents, social media acts as a quick and simple path to access the users’ minds without alerting them to what is happening. It is a perfect route to transport false information to millions of people and paint a biased reality to them. Justin Rosenstein also expresses his concerns in the documentary film The Social Dilemma, “It’s as though we have less and less control over who we are and what we believe.” (qtd. In Orlowski) As the number of social media users increases these apps have become a powerful tool for authorities and politicians to influence the masses for their own benefits. Each user’s identity and individuality are taken away through social media as they side with fake news presented to them, making them emotionally invested in the comments. 

    In addition to fake news, social media is also full of aggression and hostility. Agustin Fuentes gives an example of aggressive actions online in his article, “‘You need to have your throat cut out and your decomposing, bug-infested body fed to wild pigs.’ (643). On social media, individuals can post unacceptable, anonymous comments to harm others without worrying about the consequences of their actions. The majority of people use the features that were intended to be beneficial in a malicious way to intentionally traumatize and infuriate others. To evaluate aggression on social media, the Pew Research Center conducted a study in 2017 where for “ four out of ten said they’d been subjected to harassing behavior (on the Internet). Polities was the issue most likely to trigger the harassment” (Fuentes, 645). Inflammatory comments targeted towards specific political views easily anger people with opposing opinions on the topic discussed, deepening their original beliefs so they double down in the face of aggression. When debating how social media increases political division and worsens society, some articles argue that the Internet benefits society and “we are incredibly lucky to live in a time of worldwide, instantaneous connection” (Brody 594). Indeed, technology and social media are great ways of socializing and communication. However, the benefits of communication only apply to people talking with others they already know. Overall, social media inevitably divides society into political hiveminds and opposing factions. After highlighting the abundance of aggression online, Fuentes drew attention to a grave impact of these harsh actions in his article, “The way we socially interact, especially via social media, is multiplying exactly at a time when we are increasingly divided” (646). Polarization and inequality will be the outcome of increasing social media use, affecting major political events. 

Social media, with its abundance of fake news and aggressive posts, is trampling our democracy. In The Social Dilemma, Tristan Harris points out how social media is causing internal turmoil: “Imagine a world where no one believes anything true. Everyone believes the government is lying to them. Everything is a conspiracy theory. That’s where all this is heading” (qtd. In Orlowki). Also supported by Cadwalladr’s research, social media is currently manipulating a large range of people, implementing mistrust in the government, and ruining the democratic system that our country depends on. An example of these manipulations is violent clashes between protesters and supporters after the chaos in Chicago (qtd. In Orlowski). Political division and skepticism towards other people are developing and skyrocketing due to social media use. 

In addition to causing internal conflicts, social media also serves as a tool for foreign countries to influence and destroy our democracy. Tristan Harris states in The Social Dilemma, “We in the tech industry have created the tools to destabilize and erode the fabric of society in every country” (qtd. In Orlowski). It is evident that social media has powerful functions and easy access for other countries to use for their purposes. When discussing the 2016 election, experts state that the Russians “used the tools that Facebook created and applied it to a nefarious purpose” (Tristan Harris qtd. In Orlowski). This means anyone can impose an influence on politics in the United States if they have access to the Internet. Anyone can influence results to major events such as presidential elections, posing prolonged impact. Not only are foreign countries attempting to influence U.S. democracy, but countries all around the world are affected, “This is happening at scale. By state actors, by people with millions of dollars saying, ‘I wanna destabilize Kenya. I wanna destabilize Cameroon. ” (Tristan Harris qtd. In Orlowski). Foreign control of democracy is not hypothetical; it is happening at this moment and it has happened before. It is through social media that rival powers have the chance to affect democracies in the world, ruining the system our lives depend on.

Ultimately, the negative consequences of social media outweigh the benefits of communication advocated by Goldsmith and Brody. These applications manifest fake news and online aggression, and crumbles democracy warned by multiple authors.  Is it too late for America to stop our bleak predictions of the future where polarization causes civil war, and even the destruction of human civilization from becoming reality? 

Works Cited

Brody, Nicholas. “It Turns Out Our Tech Gadgets Aren’t as Isolating as Experts Say” They Say/ I Say. 5th ed., edited by Gerald Graff et al., W.W.Norton & Company, 2021,593-595.

Cadwalladr, Carole. “Google, Democracy, and the Truth about Internet Search” They Say/ I Say. 5th ed., edited by Gerald Graff et al., W.W.Norton & Company, 2021, 624-642.

Carr, Nicholas. “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds” They Say/ I Say. 5th ed., edited by Gerald Graff et al., W.W.Norton & Company, 2021, 597-605.

Fuentes, Agustín. “Are We Really as Awful as We Act Online?” They Say/ I Say. 5th ed., edited by Gerald Graff et al., W.W.Norton & Company, 2021, 643-649.

Goldsmith, Kenneth. “Go Ahead: Waste Time on the Internet” They Say/ I Say. 5th ed., edited by Gerald Graff et al., W.W.Norton & Company, 2021, 582-586.

Social Dilemma. Directed by Jeff Orlowski, Mass FX Media, 2022.