Su et al. (2022) have explored in their study: Social Media Expression, Political Extremity, and Reduced Network Interaction: An Imagined Approach, the recent rise of political extremism via social media and it’s audience. Their study proposes an imagined audience to understand how social media capabilities are related to a users political extremism and isolated network interaction.
Social Media is the primary tool that an individual uses to express their personal political agenda (Gil de Zuniga et al., 2014) . It is undeniable that there has been a surge recently in political extremism and radicalisation (Su et al., 2022). It is visible on my own social media platforms daily. The study cites issues surrounding border control and immigration. While, I agree dialogue around these topics is prevalent, it is my experience that the topic most discussed in radical terms currently is vaccination. Vaccinations and the government mandates is a polarising topic. I have witnessed extreme positions, both for and against on social media. Studies show that individuals that hold extreme attitudes tend to believe their views are superior and consider the opposing side as radical (Toner et al., 2013). It is most concerning when individuals hold extreme stance on important issues and refuse to acknowledge or consider an opposing view (Su et al., 2022). Personally, this is of most concern to me due to my understanding of social media algorithms. While I appreciate that algorithms weed out unnecessary content for my entertainment value. Those same algorithms when applied to political agenda can be dangerous. By shielding individuals from opposing political views it creates perceived closeness for extreme values. “Algorithmic curation profoundly shapes online reality, guiding not only audience perception but also the very algorithms feeding into audience composition” (Kaun & Uldam, 2018).
Overall the study offers insight into the implications of political extremity via social media. Social media as a tool has undoubtedly increased democratic opportunity for individuals to participate freely in political expression (Su et al., 2022.) However, this increased opportunity amplifies existing political division, mainly due to the individual’s self-persuasion {via algorithms} of the superiority of their political views.
Gil de Zúñiga, H., Molyneux, L., Zheng, P. (2014). Social media, political expression, and political participation: Panel analysis of lagged and concurrent relationships. Journal of Communication, 64(4), 612–634.
Kaun, A., Uldam, J. (2018). Digital activism: After the hype. New Media & Society, 20(6), 2099–2106.
Su, M., Suk, J., Rojas, H. (2022) Social Media Expression, Political Extremity, and Reduced Network Interaction: An Imagined Audience Approach. Social Media and Society, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211069056
Toner, K., Leary, M. R., Asher, M. W., Jongman-Sereno, K. P. (2013). Feeling superior is a bipartisan issue: Extremity (not direction) of political views predicts perceived belief superiority. Psychological Science, 24(12), 2454–2462.