Social media connects people and amplifies different aspects of humanity in good and bad ways. But the effects of social media appear neither universally good nor bad, but rather present an oscillating, dynamic system that can be divisive but also uniting, a new University of California, Davis, study suggests.
Department of Communication researchers said their findings both in an observational study and simulation speak to the ongoing debate about social media's contributions to political polarization, misinformation and echo chambers. To conduct their research, they analyzed millions of Twitter posts across the United States, finding that, among other things, people do not always isolate in their own communities, particularly during large world events.
The research
