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Noah Scoggins

Mrs. Benny

ENC1101

October 20, 2021

Is social media a threat?

There has been a lot of controversy over the past couple years on whether or not social media is a

good thing, or a way to damage democracy. In this paper, I will argue why social media is trying

to desroy democracy by spreading false-news, influencing public opinion, and creating echo

chambers for every user. The false-news and misinformation spread on these social media sites is

harmful to our democracy and supports division in socities.

One thing produced and circulated by social media is fake news. Fake news has greatly

effected the past two elections, and also the Covid-19 pandemic, three major events in US

history. In his book, Third Person Effects of Fake News: Fake News Regulation and Media

Literacy Interventions, Mo Jang states that “Since the 2016 election, the term, ‘fake news,’ has

come to respresent an array of misleading news style stories that were fabricated and promoted

on social media to decieve the public for ideological and/or financial gain.” With the amount of

misinformation circulating these social media platforms it is hard to know what is actually true.

It is largely used in politics, which is part of what made the past two elections so controversal. In

politics it is used to downgrade a political figure or party and make one specific group or person

look better than the other, overall causing a bigger divide in our democracy and political

polarization. This is not the only way that social media is trying to disrupt democracy, they also

create echo chambers special to each individual user.

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Another method social media is using to damage democracy is called echo chambers.

This means that the platform is going to be sharing posts or ads with you that is like-minded to

you. So if you are on the right side of the political spectrum, then the platform is only going to be

showing you thoughts and beliefs of the right side. Furthermore, this only creates more political

extremism and polarization. In his article, The Echo Chamber Effect on Social Media, Matteo

Cinelli notes “Social media may limit the exposure to diverse perspectives and favor the

formation of groups of like-minded users framing and reinforcing a shared narrative, that is, echo

chambers.” Social media is only showing users what they wanna see and not the truth or view

from another perspective. Social media also has methods to try and influence public opinion into

what is best for them.

To make the above mentioned claim, one must assume that most the population is using

social media and getting news from it. One may not get stuck in these traps of social media

simply if they are not on these platforms. In her news article, News Use Across Social Media

Platforms in 2020, Elisa Shearer states “About half of U.S. adults (53%) say they get news from

social media “often” or “sometimes,” and this use is spread out across a number of different

sites, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020.” Alittle more

than half of Americans use social media and get news from it.
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Works cited

Jang, Mo. Third Person Effects of Fake News: Fake News Regulation and Media Literacy

Interventions. 2017. P.1

Cinelli, Matteo. The Echo Chamber Effect on Social Media. 2021

Shearer, Elisa. News Use Across Social Media Platforms in 2020. 2021