Is Social Media Bad for Democracy?
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Senior
Major
Political Science/Pre-Law
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Brittany Wood
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
To what extent does social media usage affect partisan animosity? Due to echo chambers that eliminate differing viewpoints and algorithms that entice users through the use of emotionally-charged shortform content, social media can deepen its users' negative affect towards opposing viewpoints. With social media platforms garnering billions of monthly users where anyone can easily voice their opinion, the position social media plays in society has become of crucial concern to politics. Here, I examine to what extent social media usage has a substantial impact on an individual’s perception of their out-party. I hypothesize that higher levels of social media usage will result in a more polarized and negative affect towards opposing parties. Using the 2024 ANES weighted dataset, I plan to use a OLS regression to test my hypothesis and examine feeling thermometers of the two major political parties with social media usage across platforms. The expected findings suggest that increased social media usage within the United States may intensify the existing partisan rift, which has many downstream negative consequences including emergence of more extreme political candidates, greater unease among the population, and possible political violence in the future if these trends persist.
Fall Scholars Week 2025
Political Science and Sociology Department Panel
Spring Scholars Week 2026
Political Science and Sociology Department Panel
Is Social Media Bad for Democracy?
To what extent does social media usage affect partisan animosity? Due to echo chambers that eliminate differing viewpoints and algorithms that entice users through the use of emotionally-charged shortform content, social media can deepen its users' negative affect towards opposing viewpoints. With social media platforms garnering billions of monthly users where anyone can easily voice their opinion, the position social media plays in society has become of crucial concern to politics. Here, I examine to what extent social media usage has a substantial impact on an individual’s perception of their out-party. I hypothesize that higher levels of social media usage will result in a more polarized and negative affect towards opposing parties. Using the 2024 ANES weighted dataset, I plan to use a OLS regression to test my hypothesis and examine feeling thermometers of the two major political parties with social media usage across platforms. The expected findings suggest that increased social media usage within the United States may intensify the existing partisan rift, which has many downstream negative consequences including emergence of more extreme political candidates, greater unease among the population, and possible political violence in the future if these trends persist.