Is Social Media Polarizing American Politics? 2020 US Election
The divide in the United States today seems like a normality, but that wasn’t the case 50 years ago. Award winning journalist and author Alexandra Robbins once said, “The 1970s, fewer than 25% of US residents lived in counties in which the presidential candidate won by landslide. 30 years later, that percentage has nearly doubled”. There are many factors that have increased this huge divide, but how is social media playing a factor since its creation in the late 1990’s?
History of the American two party system
The two party system was first used in the election of 1796, but it wasn’t the same parties that we have today. The original two party system consisted of the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. In 1828 we saw the emergence of the Democratic party and twenty six years later the emergence of the Republican party. The split was largely due to the fact that the Federalists disbanded and the high amount of people running for the Democratic-Republican's party. Even though many ideologies and values were the same, decades later these two parties values shifted away from each other.
Has there always been a divide in American Politics?
Some may say the two party system was the start of the polarization in American politics, but there are an abundance of factors. Wealth, race, religion, location and social status are just a few classifications that have caused divide in the United States, but they have also played a huge role in the divide in politics. There are many examples of political divide in America, but there hasn't been a concrete example as noticeable as the 2020 election.
This divide that we see today has been escalated and the use of social media in politics potentially influences this belief.
When did social media become a platform for politics?
Social media has been used by politicians for running campaigns and raising money, but no one has ever used social media like former president Donald Trump. Many argue that Donald Trump’s use of Twitter caused more divide among Americans. But when did the general population get so involved in politics on social media? There is no set date when this began, but apps such as reddit have pages dedicated to certain political parities dating back over ten years. These are called subreddits and they have been used for people to share beliefs they have with others who share the same beliefs and values.
What is polarization in politics?
Accepting everything one party hands out and rejecting everything another party has to offer is a very simplistic definition of political polarization. According to the NCBI, “Political polarization occurs when subsets of a population adopt increasingly dissimilar attitudes toward parties and party members, as well as ideologies and policies”. When it comes to social media apps such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, the information we see is “tailored” to “us” and what we see is sometimes depicted as what we want to see. This tends to increase and create bias on the information we take in.
Does social media increase the polarization in American politics?
According to the NCBI, “With little-to-no polarization, most people support a mixture of liberal and conservative stances across issues, and they can support one party without disliking others. With very high polarization, large, separate clusters of the population endorse ideologically consistent stances across all issues, and love their own party while loathing the other(s)”. Throughout the past couple of decades common ground has nearly faded, especially on social media platforms.
According to the Greater Good Magazine, Many people argue that we increasingly live in online filter bubbles that only expose us to the ideas we already agree with. This is consistent with a broader psychological literature on confirmation bias, showing that we are more likely to seek out and agree with views that align with our pre-existing beliefs. I have seen this in my own experience on social media, when I was a freshman in college I thought that one belief was the “right” one and it took me years of my own research to get out of that hole that social media and myself put me in.
Are we losing the public sphere on social media?
The public sphere needs to be maintained, this space where people from all backgrounds can come together and share their own critical thoughts, feelings and opinions really is the groundwork of a well functioning democracy. Social media adds a new perspective around people coming together, On social media societal, political and environmental problems are discussed, people come together on apps like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, this is known as the public sphere. It is hard to say what can be done about these because as a democracy you don’t want to take actions like China and Russia and promote censorship.
To conclude, will there ever be unity on the internet when it comes to politics?
According to Greater Good Magazine, Since 1994, the number of Americans who see the opposing political party as a threat to “the nation’s well-being” has doubled. In 1994 there were no social media platforms, the internet was fresh and the public sphere was intact. There is still so much unity in the United States, people from all backgrounds have their own sets of beliefs, standards and values, but we are all human. Social media is still very new and there is so much more work to be done. The polarization of politics can’t be just explained through social media. It takes a person to listen to what others have to say and understand the point of view of another. Social media is a tool that people use to get information, but unlike the news, everything on social media isn’t fact checked or verified. An individual has to do research on their own.
“Only humility will lead us to unity, and unity will lead us to peace” — Mother Teresa
