AAII Survey: Does Social Media Bring Us Together or Divide Us?

With a President who uses Twitter more than any Commander-in-Chief in history, accusations that social media played a role in misinforming the electorate leading up to the 2016 election, and firms such as Facebook providing unfettered access to user data, social media has become a whipping post in recent years. This is a far cry for the early days of MySpace and then Facebook, with these sites intended for friends and family to stay in touch with each other.

AAII Weekly Survey Question

While the number of people using social media sites grows every day, their impact on society received mixed reviews.

To see where our readers stand on the topic of social media, last week’s survey question asked:

                Do you think social media does more to bring us together or does more to divide us?

Here are the results:

In all, 1,950 readers participated.

Nearly half of those participating (46%) say that social media does more to dividend us that bring us together.

Only 6% of respondents say that social media does more to bring us together.

Forth-one percent of participants say that social media brings us together and divides us.

Three percent say that social media neither brings us together or divides us and 4% say they are not sure about social media’s impact.

Weekly Special Question

Social media firms have also become popular targets for politicians and their role in manipulating elections and sharing personal information.

To see if our readers believe social media firms need greater government oversight, last week’s special question asked:

Do you support government regulation and oversight of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter? What forms of regulation would you support?

In all, we received 212 responses.

The responses were almost even when it comes to those supporting government regulation and oversight of social media firms (42%) and those who are against it (43%).

For those that do not support government oversight or regulation, these were the top responses:

• Let the marketplace sort things out, no regulation needed whatsoever
• Regulating social media would impede on free speech
• Regulation or oversight would be too difficult

The top responses from those supporting oversight or regulation of social media firms included:

• These firms hold too much influence and need regulating
• Regulation and oversight would improve privacy
• Regulation and oversight is needed to limit hate speech and graphic violence shares on these sites

Here is a sampling of the responses as to why our readers support or do not support oversight and regulation of social media companies:

• “Yes, deploy and enforce an ’electronic passport’ to use and control these tools. After approval, use cyber tools (e.g. retina scans, voice, fingerprints, two-factor identification, etc.) to prove identity every time one logs on.”
• “I think that Facebook/Twitter should pay its members for using personal information.”
• “[Social media should be] regulated like other forms of mass communication like broadcast TV and radio.”
• “They should be legally responsible for what appears in them, just like newspapers and other media.”
• “I do not support regulation of content. I do support better transparency and control of my own data. Only the government can mandate standard control of personal information.”
• “I do not support government interference of freedom of speech. The problem with most of the social media platforms is that they are picking and choosing what they allow based on their personal biases, which should lead to some form of external oversight.”
• “I think that the EU has taken steps in the right direction by instituting privacy rules. These rules apply to all companies.”
• “No, you can not regulate ‘freedom of speech.’ Who does the censorship?”

Everybody has an opinion! Why not give us yours? Participate in our weekly member poll, updated every Monday, and see the results online at www.aaii.com/memberquestion.