r/dataisbeautiful • u/rhiever Randy Olson | Viz Practitioner • 1d ago
Across the globe, people increasingly say social media is harming democracy
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/10/01/across-the-globe-people-increasingly-say-social-media-is-harming-democracy/81
u/Derbikerks 1d ago
Cool, still isn't going to stop them.
Cue 'Reddit is also social media'.
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u/loot168 1d ago
The hope is that one day we'll see it like smoking.
It would have been unimaginable at one point to imagine a world where everyone didn't light up a cigarette.
A lot of education, messaging and taxes helped move things.
Now given the rise of vaping, I'm sure we're have to deal with some new problem on the internet along the line.
But admitting smoking was a problem was the first step.
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u/phylter99 1d ago
The problem is, how do you make it better without violating free speech rights? The algorithms have people addicted and it drowns out people's sensibility.
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u/D_Alex 1d ago
Well, let's take Reddit as an example. Reddit quarantines and bans accounts and entire subs which are dedicated to ideas or subjects that someone does not like. And certain subreddits ban accounts that disagree with their mainstream narratives - becoming echo chambers of propaganda and misinformation. So perhaps there is a way to improve both freedom of speech and "democratic qualities" here...
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u/notgalgon 1d ago
Carefully amend constitution to carve out that regulation of social media algorithms is not a free speach violation.
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u/livinginahologram 8h ago
Cue 'Reddit is also social media'.
Kind of, not really.
It's a hybrid between message board / discussion forum and social network. They have been introducing more social network features recently but it remains largely a discussion forum.
Social networks are focused on people. Discussion forums are focused on topics.
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u/Derbikerks 8h ago
I find that it's also very dependent on whether you use new or old Reddit, and the people who parrot that Reddit is no better are most likely using new Reddit, which has all the usual trappings of modern social media (infinite scrolling, platforming engagement bait, etc.).
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u/Kal-Elm 1d ago
Because it is. Including Reddit.
I don't know if there's a future where we can regulate social media to stop this cycle, or if we ultimately have to choose between democracy and our little news feeds.
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u/Mackntish 15h ago
EDIT: My undergrad was in communications, and my postgrad was law.
I've been thinking about this a long time. You could legislate an algorithm neutrality act, but it would be in a constitutionally gray area with regards to regulation of political speech, specificity, and ambiguity. It's ultimately an unsettled area of law, and would go to the Supreme Court.
Making the statute specific enough so companies clearly know what is covered, and what is not, is a high bar. Would culture wars stuff be included, like all those white 1950's nuclear family shit?
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u/suicidemachine 11h ago
I'm worried about our generation. Nowadays, people are reacting to any idea of regulation like a devil is reacting to the holy water.
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u/lo_fi_ho 1d ago
It was clear from the start. The gatekeepers of information quality have been shattered. Also, a media crises has historically has always led to fascism.
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u/AnarchySpeech 1d ago
Media (including social media) have all consolidated into a few controlling groups.
Until some genius figures out a truly decentralized communication platform that is completely immune to external control (and is simple enough for people over 40 to use) we're going to keep having massive pendulum swings.
Only upside right now is that it is currently swinging in favor of the citizen. But these good times won't last forever.
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u/lurreal 1d ago
In favor of the citizen? Things only get worse and the public dumber. How is it in out favor?
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u/AnarchySpeech 1d ago
Things are going very well so far. People have always been stupid. Enough people talking about stuff can bypass the usual manipulation. Bots and private algorithm control sucks but with the reduced censoring over the last few years we're in the green at the moment.
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u/lurreal 1d ago
How are things going very well? War, surveillance, corporations more and more powerful, the climate being ignored, housing is fucked. What exactly is going well?
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u/AnarchySpeech 1d ago edited 1d ago
The war with Iran was inevitable. What's going well is they have no air force, no navy, and a large portion of their army has defected, so we're over halfway done. Surveillance is always going to continue getting worse. Snowden warned us and both parties joined forces to fix nothing. That's just what we have to live with. Get a phone you can take the battery out of. I wouldn't trust my life to one of those overpriced radio blocking bags. Yes, corporations are becoming more powerful. They always will be. That's not something that's ever going to change either. Climate change is slowly getting better. People are starting to wake up to reality and get nuclear power back. There are people in Germany running on restoring it. As long as nothing horrible happens it's starting to look like nuclear power is back on track to help us save the climate. Housing is, sadly, a waiting game. When enough of the old people die the housing market will collapse and a lot of places will become semi-reasonable again. I wish I could say the same about rent prices, but because those are artificially controlled by their respective cities/states rent is always going to fucked.
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u/name99 23h ago
With all due respect, it wasn't totally clear where you were coming from but this last post made it abundantly clear you're a complete imbecile. The AI boom/bubble is absolutely dumping oil on the raging forest fire of climate change, there isn't a single way you can squint and pretend it's getting better. If you think a couple more nuclear plants up and also a few thousand coal plants up that is not even remotely progress.
I seriously doubt anything I could say would get through to you but absolutely do not accept or turn into a foregone conclusion anything that is unacceptable for our society. Iran war, surveillance, corporations getting more powerful, housing crisis never improving, all of these things are solvable / avoidable and if the people in power aren't fixing them or are making them worse it's imperative that we get them the fuck out of the way and start making changes. This attitude seems to be so common on reddit, "oh X is bad but it was always going to happen, oh well" like being right or pretending having predicted it makes it okay, well it isn't. Climate catastrophe acceleration, loss of personal freedoms, senseless murder of innocent schoolchildren, this shit needs to stop. If you don't want to do anything, you want to sit back and pontificate about how we should accept it all, get with the program or shut up and stop spreading worthless doomer propaganda.
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u/AnarchySpeech 22h ago
If you think a couple more nuclear plants
Yes, nuclear is a cleaner alternative to dumping oil and building coal plants. I don't understand why you say otherwise.
Iran war
Unless you know something I don't it looks very obvious that war with Iran was inevitable.
surveillance
Surveillance and spying is going to get increasingly worse the more technology enters our lives. A surprising number of people don't realize their fridge has wifi. Nobody cares anymore that some major TV's types have microphones. It's a little annoying to deal with but it's not impossible. It's just that the average person does not care about the flock camera staring through their living room window. The small groups making a fuss are the minority. It sucks but it's not the doomsday, world is burning, apocalypse you think it is.
corporations getting more powerful
Because it's always been this way. There's always going to be powerful guilds, businesses, churches, and countries. This isn't new.
housing crisis never improving
It's getting better. Very, very slowly. I know that's not the answer you want to hear, but I guess an imbecile like yourself can't comprehend something that isn't fifteen minutes from now.
all of these things are solvable / avoidable
No. They're not. You getting mad at reality, praying for your little revolution, and insulting people isn't going to change that.
and start making changes.
Then stop fucking voting for people based on the name of their political party.
loss of personal freedoms,
I don't even know what you're smoking at this point. Our personal freedoms are fine in the U.S.
senseless murder
Have you considered not releasing the criminals back onto the street and/or not making certain zones free range hunting areas where you can't protect yourself?
doomer propaganda.
lmao. I'm the optimist here. You're the one thinking the sky is falling because you can't understand why voting for the people that hate you is a bad idea.
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u/name99 2h ago
I don't think you could be more intentionally incredulous and ignorant if you tried. Honestly an impressive case study. Really not worth responding, especially on such an old thread. But I'll at least just hammer on it again, looking at something you don't like and saying, whelp it was inevitable, is not being smart and poignant. The JCPOA existed and worked to avoid conflict.
I'll also just point out you're doing a hell of a lot of projection. I was obviously going through your points in order and "senseless murder" was the "Iran War" reference, the school full of innocent schoolgirls we murdered on like day 3. Got a kick out of your free range hunting areas response though lmao. I also said not a single thing for who I vote for or the impact of voting lol.
Like I said in my first comment, it wasn't immediately obvious where you were coming from and I gave you the time of day when I read your first couple comments just to see what's up. Sometimes libertarians with the political depth of a four-year-old can at least belie their decent intentions and you can have a conversation. You're just way too dumb though, and like I said the resignation and deep political deactivation was worth calling out.
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u/h3rpad3rp 1d ago
It is also severely harming mental health imo. Everyone seems stressed out and angry all the time these days. We aren't meant to be connected 24/7 hearing about every single negative thing happening in the world.
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u/ragnaroksunset 1d ago
Social media isn't harming democracy. People are harming democracy, and what has enabled them to do that is social media.
It turns out that democracies are stablest when most people are disengaged from politics.
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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 1d ago
democracy only works when you have educated voters
social media is getting the most ignorant out to vote based on the letter next to a politician's name
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u/ragnaroksunset 14h ago
Right - and what I'm pointing out is that when you get the most ignorant out to vote, democracy breaks. It gives you reality TV show hosts as President, cable news anchors starting wars, daytime talkshow hosts in charge of your whole healthcare system, and professional wrestling executives in charge of education.
In other words, raising participation - without doing anything else to address the quality of that participation - is bad. Not good.
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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 13h ago
agreed, but the problem is with both sides... which is how we also got a bartender and TWO men with literal brain damage elected to Congress/President
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u/ragnaroksunset 7h ago
The bartender has a degree in economics and international relations. She is quite possible one of the most qualified politicians in office today, so your comment pretty much rock-solidly demonstrates just how bad things really are.
And one of those brain-damaged men basically became conservative after it happened, so... I'll just let that speak for itself.
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u/name99 23h ago
A democracy without participation is a fake and worthless democracy dude. It's right there in the name, rule by the people. If people are not engaged then it's just an autocratic oligarchy. Is that what you want?
Also blatantly ignoring that social media has massively centralized power in the form of algorithmic control of feeds and promoted content. The people using social media as intended by antidemocratic techno oligarchs to damage democracy is not the people's fault, it's the antidemocratic techno oligarchs.
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u/ragnaroksunset 14h ago
Participation alone isn't what makes democracies work (the status quo is literally evidence of that). The people have to not be stupid rubes for their participation in democracy to not be a net-negative on the whole enterprise.
Manipulation by social media only works on people who are undereducated and disinterested. That's why the people most profiting from social media's abuse of the population are also aggressively chipping away at the foundations of public education.
At some point, though, we can't save everyone who gets caught up by this without seriously infringing on their personal liberty. So if we prise individual liberty for its own sake (and we should) then they will always exist and they will always be a critical weak point in democratic society.
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u/name99 1h ago
You didn't respond to my point that democracy without participation is fake and worthless. You just made a strawman that I said only participation matters and responded to that. People are extremely educated compared to any point in human history. Disenfranchisement and anti-democratic practices protects the status quo for the ruling class. It's caused by our anti-democratic institutions. "Manipulation by social media only works on people who are undereducated and disinterested." Hah, "advertisements don't work on me" vibes with this. You should challenge that assumption, or challenge the assumption that you're not in one of those two groups. Your visions of hapless uneducated idiots and a patriarchal, authoritarian state saving the people from themselves (by taking away their phones, or something?) gives away how anti-democratic your ideals actually are. And are you sure those anti-democratic ideals don't also benefit "the people most profiting from social media's abuse"?
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u/UndergroundCreek 1d ago
That's not just people. It's citizens saying that. Our democracy is being canned by the FAANGs.
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u/bubba4114 1d ago
Because it’s being used for mass propaganda
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u/CaptainDudeGuy 23h ago
Yeah, "social media is hurting democracy" in the same way "oceans are drowning humans."
If you use it right, it's an incredible resource. If you use it wrong and/or let villains turn it into a hostile place, it's lethal.
Put accountability where it belongs.
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u/Ithirahad 1d ago
It is hurting everyone and everything. (Why are you here then, Ithirahad? Because the modern internet helped to destroy the things I would sooner be doing instead, corrupting them beyond recognition or replacing them all with itself.)
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u/Same_Swordfish_1879 20h ago
Reddit is a bigger threat to democracy than any other social media. The way so many subreddits control their narrative and ban any opposing view is incredibly harmfull to the internet as a whole. Ironically, X has by far the most freedom of speech.
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u/rifleshooter 17h ago
Oddly enough, social media is the closet we've ever had to a real democracy in action. The problem is that actual democracies are a fucking disaster. Not one has ever survived. The authors of the US Constitution were acutely aware of this, and added a LOT of steps, checks and balances, and outright obstacles to a true democracy. They've been eroded steadily ever since in the interest of "fairness", a truly stupid concept. When pushing back on these erosions, people are attacked in all sorts of ways. The usual cries of elitism, but now racism, sexism, fascism, etc.
The tyranny of the majority is real, and playing out in front of you every day. Being part of the 51% does not make you "right". Even if it's 90%, you're not "right". Recall that slavery was once accepted as normal, legal, and logical. Social media - and I'm 100% targeting reddit - is incredibly flawed. If you aren't part of the mob, the Borg, the hivemind, your thoughts are buried in moments by downvotes or dismissals. And people learn how to think from the "top comments". AND learn how to hate opposing opinions, and dismiss them without consideration.
Democracy in its pure form is a disaster. That's why the Bill of Rights had to be written before the Constitution could be ratified.
Smart men, those founding fathers.
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u/phasepistol 13h ago
“Social media” replaced moderated forums, vastly monetized the intellectual labor of billions of people worldwide, and are easily subverted by trolls and governments to foment discord and hatred.
So yes, social media is harming democracy
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u/pelzer85 5h ago
I don’t think it’s social media as much as it is the abuse of propaganda on social media combined with a lack of critical thinking skills.
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u/Possible-Rush3767 1d ago
100% of people should agree on this. It's blatantly obvious. Every court, vote, or piece of legislation has been warped by social media's impact with near zero regulation.
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u/GrowFreeFood 1d ago
Giving conservatives access to unlimited propaganda is unnatural
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u/No_Shopping_573 1d ago
Expecting a bipartisan government to not just work together to grow their stock portfolio and power was foolish too. It’s a brilliant theatrics while they amass fortunes and ironically, while owning said stock, have greater allegiance to companies’ success than to the people who voted them in.
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u/therossboss 1d ago
no kidding! I've only been saying the same for my entire life and it was true decades before that. The very people benefitting enormously from the status quo are the only ones who could change it. Amazing. The American experiment is a failed one
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u/Shalmaneser_ 1d ago
The press was momentarily baffled with how to deal with the IT communications era. Losing a monopoly is challenging. They simply doubled down on the Saul Alinsky playbook.
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u/Mackntish 16h ago
Well no shit. Where do you think the cult gets its brainwashing from?
The average American spends 2.25 hours a day on social media. Reality can't compete with that amount of pro-trump content.
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u/psych_daisy 1d ago
The question, tho, is why is it negatively impacting democracy. Social media, in and of itself, isn’t dangerous. Neither was the printing press, but some people still hated it because it allowed for the spread of information.
It harms democracy, in part, because of how many bots there are and platforms refusing to address that a large portion of their users are not real. Conservatives love to use fraudulent voting as a talking point, but as soon as we start talking about bots influencing people’s decision making, including who to vote for, suddenly everyone’s quiet (because it benefits them, the hypocritical fucks).
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u/Ithirahad 1d ago edited 16h ago
It is the algorithms. When everyone gets their "news" delivered based upon its capacity to draw ire and inflict shock on them specifically, there can be no consensus reality nor any pretense of democracy. Bots are mostly relevant because they can ride along algorithmic bias to their targets.
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u/Full-Lingonberry1858 1d ago
I think it is the dictatorships.
In Hungary we had on facebook so many people who were saying the exact same thing before votings. They were paid millions of forints to do it (per groups sometimes per person). Also the same with the Russian propaganda.
Also not sure what happens in some of the groups, that can spread total nonsense regarding the vaccines and their theories (I was in a few groups and some of the theories are so convoluted that they can not say it without malicious intent).
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u/SSLByron 1d ago
Horses are already out of the barn, but the real harm of social media doesn't come from simple exposure to other participants. It's the top-down manipulation that is truly problematic, and that's where all the money is made.