How Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram shape (and radicalize) our opinions.
By Sophia Moskalenko Ph.D.
Recent news offer a variety of topics to be angry about. Here’s one: “After a nearly two-week hiatus, the Lexington, Virginia, restaurant known for turning away White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders reopened its doors Thursday night.” Chances are, you have used social media to inform your opinion on that topic. And as it turns out, whether you side with Ms. Sanders or the Red Hen, that same social media likely radicalized your opinion, fueling your anger.
For radicalization researchers, social media offer an interesting observational study. Research on face-to-face groups discovered that discussion among like-minded people radicalizes their average opinion. A group that starts out slightly pro-life ends up more pro-life; a group that starts out anti-guns ends up more so.
Two forces radicalize opinions in group discussion. One is informational: people learn new arguments to support the opinions they already hold. The second radicalizing force in group discussion is social: people admire and want to emulate those expressing the most extreme opinions.
Social media discussions carry both informational and social aspects of group polarization. In news-related Twitter threads, tweets that offer new arguments supporting a particular attitude (useful facts, catchy metaphors, moral judgments) get more “likes” and retweets. Twitter users learn relevant arguments to reinforce their own opinions. Users with more radical opinions get larger followings, precisely because their tweets use expletives and polarizing rhetoric. More radical individuals have more social influence.
Social media are more radicalizing than face-to-face groups because they are larger collectives (more sources of information), and because in these large collectives there is more likelihood of encountering radical individuals. There’s a third reason social media groups are more radicalizing. In a face-to face group, dissenters can be ignored or expelled—but only with some unpleasantness. On a social media platform, selection has no downside; just press the mute button or the block button.
Some cases of social media radicalization have already come to light. The Arab Spring, the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014, and the Armenian revolution of 2018 evolved on social media, where opinions radicalized first, and then action was planned and coordinated. ISIS’ use of social media to recruit fighters, wives, and supporters around the globe resulted in thousands of Western youths traveling to Syria and Iraq. Russia used Facebook and Twitter to try to twist the U.S. electorate with radicalizing posts. Perhaps the most amazing example is the INCEL (involuntarily celibate) movement, which unites losers living in their parents’ basements, and upgrades their personal grievances of sexual failure to the level of a political movement worthy of NYT editorials.
More people every day rely on social media for their news, entertainment and social interactions. What we need is independent research to investigate their potential political effects. Like a Trojan horse, we let these vehicles into our daily lives. Let’s not close our collective eyes to the danger that they can carry.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
BECAUSE THE MEDIA IS LIEING TO ALL SIDES TO CREATE CUSTOMERS TO WATCH OR READ WHAT THEY PORTRAY.
MEDIA NEEDS CUSTOMERS,,, TO SURVIVE,,,, WHETHER THEY BE HAPPY OR ANGRY ,, THE MEDIA DOES NOT CARE,,, ITS NUMBERS THEY NEED TO JUSTIFY THEIR EXISTENCE .
SO MEDIA STIRS UP ANYTHING SO THEY CAN SURVIVE .
THEY NEED NUMBERS TO SELL IDEAS TO ADVERTISERS WHO PUT MONEY IN THEIR POCKET.
MEDIA DOES NOT PURSUE THE WHOLE TRUTH.
THEY MANUFACTURE WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET NUMBERS.
THEY BEEN DOING THIS SINCE SOMEONE INVENTED ADVERTISING.
THEN LYNDON JOHNSON CREATED WAS TO DUMB DOWN EDUCATION, HE CREATED THE
ENVY AND GREED GOVERNMENT AND MADE THE RACES LUST FOR OTHER PEOPLES STUFF AND MONEY !
NOW THE HATE HAS BEEN DISTRACTED TO BLACK FACE.
WHILE POLITICIANS ENRICH THEMSELVES FROM MEDIA PROFITS AND LOBBYIST !
THE GOVERNMENT STILL DOES IT!
AMERICA IS GONE,,,, SOON IT WILL BE EITHER MUSLIMS OR DRAG QUEENS RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT AND MANY WHO TRUSTED POLITICANS, WILL BE WEEPING !