Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing

Chris Bail

Published by Princeton University Press 2021

Breaking the Social Media Prism

How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing

Chris Bail

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691216508

Overview
Contents

About this book

A revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online—and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social media

In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Breaking the Social Media Prism challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves.

Drawing on innovative online experiments and in-depth interviews with social media users from across the political spectrum, this book explains why stepping outside of our echo chambers can make us more polarized, not less. Bail takes you inside the minds of online extremists through vivid narratives that trace their lives on the platforms and off—detailing how they dominate public discourse at the expense of the moderate majority. Wherever you stand on the spectrum of user behavior and political opinion, he offers fresh solutions to counter political tribalism from the bottom up and the top down. He introduces new apps and bots to help readers avoid misperceptions and engage in better conversations with the other side. Finally, he explores what the virtual public square might look like if we could hit "reset" and redesign social media from scratch through a first-of-its-kind experiment on a new social media platform built for scientific research.

Providing data-driven recommendations for strengthening our social media connections, Breaking the Social Media Prism shows how to combat online polarization without deleting our accounts.

Author / Editor information

Chris Bail is professor of sociology and public policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He is the author of Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream (Princeton). His website is chrisbail.net. Twitter @chris_bail

Reviews

"A tour de force. Breaking the Social Media Prism is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand our current political climate and engage in positive social and political change."—Mabel Berezin, Cornell University, author of Illiberal Politics in Neoliberal Times: Culture, Security, and Populism in the New Europe

"Incredibly powerful. In this timely, well-written, and brilliant book, Christopher Bail explains why it is up to people, not platforms, to fix the problem of social media echo chambers distorting American politics."—James N. Druckman, Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
1 The Legend of the Echo Chamber Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 Why Not Break Our Echo Chambers? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
3 What Happens When We Break Them? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
4 The Social Media Prism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
5 How the Prism Drives Extremism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
6 How the Prism Mutes Moderates Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
7 Should I Delete My Account? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
8 Hacking the Prism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
9 A Better Social Media Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Appendix: research methods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225