How Does Political Polarization Impact Social Cohesion?

Before creating this project, I had many research inquiries I was interested in, as we discussed so many throughout the last few classes. Eventually I narrowed it down to focusing on the social repercussions of political polarization through social media.

Please enjoy my video that goes into depth about the issue! I knew that it would be a bit over 6 minutes, because of the breadth of information, stories, and examples I wanted to include. Thank you for listening!

In my personal life, I have noticed impacts, especially since participating in this course. I observe other’s behaviors and notice how it aligns with their political views and the political climate. Men who don’t support LGBTQ+ rights or are pro-gun, find friends who mirror this. As I discuss in my video, I have felt the disconnect from men with such political views, even if we do not discuss them — I feel them take me less seriously, and feel them tiptoeing around me. This topic is extremely relevant in everyone’s lives, and I wanted to research how politics affect social cohesion, and in turn, how social cohesion affects democracy.

When starting, I simply researched political polarization, to see what would come up. First, I came across a feature article from Forbes Magazine, where a professional “peace-builder” was interviewed about social media, polarization, and democracy — comparing the online forum to inescapable and impossible warfare. This article gave me the motivation I needed to get deeper into the topic of how social media translates into our real world. My research became more intense with the thought of segregation between Democrats and Republicans. I found that experts have attributed much of this divisiveness to self-segregation. For example, party members will only create relationships with like minded individuals, will move to a setting that values the party’s ideals, etc.. My mission now became to share with my audience the research on how social media is a key player, and the tactics we can use to tame the repercussions in our own lives.

Through this research journey, I recognized my values. I care about community. I care about communication. I care about progress. And, I really care about humanity. Hence, the research inquiry led to me asking questions that concerned myself instead — like, is social media making me less humane? More judgemental? And, is it possible my political beliefs are less extreme than I want them to be? Also, how much of my views are my own?

These questions are why I am grateful for projects like this, as we are given opportunities to learn, reflect, and readjust our perspective on society and ourselves as young people in this era of extremity and hostility. This week, I remembered that perhaps I do have the power to break down the offline divide little by little, and fill those holes with humanity itself.

Here is my two source comparison:

Annotated Bibliography:

Cohn, N. (2014, June 12). Polarization is dividing American society, not just politics. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/upshot/polarization-is-dividing-american-society-not-just-politics.html

This New York Times article doesn’t just talk about politics, it approaches how society is hurting in general. This source helps me depict to my audience how far this polarization issue has gone — how even families fall apart from political views, and how people self-segregate residentially, romantically, socially, etc..

Frischen, K. (2023, May 5). Why social media amplifies extreme views — and how to stop it. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2023/05/04/why-social-media-amplifies-extreme-views--and-how-to-stop-it/?sh=2bc11603140a

This interview is one of the sources that actually helped form my research inquiry. Larrauri talks a lot about how the online space becomes a warzone politically/socially and hinders democracy, and how with an environment like this, it feels impossible to start a peaceful conversation. The interview concludes with discussing the idea that any platform driven by an algorithm should be taxed for their polarization footprint.

Goldenberg, A. (2024, February 20). Extreme views are more attractive than moderate ones. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/extreme-views-are-more-attractive-than-moderate-ones/

This opinion article discusses the philosophy and psychology behind people choosing extreme views, or at least being interested in them. It also led me to deeper thoughts on how these views and memberships to political parties play out in life through social ties.

Guide to anti-LGBTQ online hate and disinformation. GLAAD. (2024, April 3). https://glaad.org/smsi/anti-lgbtq-online-hate-speech-disinformation-guide

This source is an informational guide for people to protect themselves against hate and false information aimed to attack the LGBTQ+ community. This is an example of how propaganda can exist everywhere, even in tropes and conspiracy theories. It is a prime example of exercising media literacy to help people gain their own literacy online.

Lee, A. H.-Y. (2022, March 18). Social Trust in polarized times: How perceptions of political polarization affect Americans’ trust in each other. Political behavior. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8932466/

This research article dissects how polarization has affected Americans’s views of each other, and also their trust of each other. This source is extremely valuable to me because it plays into the question of trust, which I think might be at the core our lack of social cohesion and collective action.

Liberty Space. (2022, August 22). Is social media making us all the same?. LibertySpace. https://libertyspace.co.uk/is-social-media-making-us-all-the-same/#:~:text=We%20follow%20people%20who%20think,alike%20instead%20of%20more%20different.n

This is a blog from Liberty Space, and it discusses how social media has “made us all the same,” or at least we are all starting to lack individuality. The blog does not mention politics or democracy, but it introduces ideas to me that I can connect to polarization and social cohesiveness. We might no longer be appreciative of someone who is different from us, because, online, we subscribe to like minded people and attach our identities to certain groups, and eventually, adopt groupthink. We judge each other deeply without even noticing.

Platt, T. (2024, March 13). Political rage on social media is making us cynical. University of Michigan News.

https://news.umich.edu/political-rage-on-social-media-is-making-us-cynical/

This communications article from the University of Michigan approaches the darkness of politics online, a perspective I want to illustrate for my viewers. The author covers how uncivil political attacks can be online, and how often, and explains how much of this results in cynical attitudes toward our government on and offline. A key theme of this article is emotion, and how intense, addicting emotions like anger and anxiety can lead to cycles of negativity — taking us further from peace.

Struyk, R. (2017, October 5). Most Republicans and Democrats have few or no friends in other party | CNN politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/05/politics/friends-political-party/index.html

CNN reinforces the idea that I shared above, how people with certain political beliefs hardly mesh anymore. This enhances my point that society has become self-serving, and is no longer one where most people appreciate a stranger — we need to spot an identity, or further, a political identity first, so we can categorize.

Tokita, C. (2021, December 6). PNAS. Polarized information ecosystems can reorganize social networks via information cascades. https://www.pnas.org/syndication/doi/10.1073/pnas.2102147118

This research article explores how social media is actually arranging people’s social connections and networks, which align with certain political aims/parties. It helped me grasp the idea that social media users might be put in these online social networks without realizing, where they observe and adopt behavior, and I think this is where propaganda really thrives. I’m using this source for further support on my answer involving propaganda.

Wike, R. (2022, December 6). Social media seen as mostly good for democracy across many nations, but U.S. is a major outlier. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/12/06/social-media-seen-as-mostly-good-for-democracy-across-many-nations-but-u-s-is-a-major-outlier/

This source provides a more positive perspective on social media and democracy, which I think makes my research more credible and balanced. The Pew Research article discusses how social media is considered good in most nations because it gives people the ability to easily inform themselves and spread awareness on issues. Civility is also a theme.