Why social media are polarizing politics

Politics around the world has entered an era of unprecedented political polarization, and scholars point to social media as playing a key role. The so-called “echo chamber” hypothesis suggests that digital media enable self-segregation into clusters with like-minded others – making us more extreme through a feedback loop between isolation and extremism. While this idea remains at the core of social media polarization research, it has been questioned by empirical evidence finding ample interaction across the political divide. This presentation will suggest a new understanding of the link between social media and polarization. We go inside a far-right echo chamber to understand how individuals are affected by engaging with extremist communities, examining 20 years of conversations on the white power forum Stormfront. We then examine the interaction across the political divide on Twitter. The findings point to a new way of understanding and studying digital media polarization: these media drive polarization not by isolating us in echo chambers, but by encouraging the formation of political identities – thus trivializing politics. This suggests that conflict, not isolation, lies at the core of social media polarization.

Petter Törnberg is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Language, Logic and Computation at the University of Amsterdam, an NWO VENI laurate, and a senior researcher at the University of Neuchâtel. His research focuses on the intersection of AI, social media, and politics, using digital data and computational methods for critical research that contributes to social scientific theory. His recent publications are featured in journals such as PNAS, New Media & Society, and Big Data & Society.