POCKET CLASS: Is social media making us hate each other

While early iterations of social media platforms were designed to connect us, today, they're doing exactly the opposite, says Dr. Jaigris Hodson, who is the Canada Research Chair in Digital Communication for the Public Interest.

"The goal of social media sites is to keep you engaged, sharing as much as possible," Hodson says, who is also the anti-polarization fellow at the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University. "Strong emotions, especially strong negative emotions tend to be associated with content that's shared more often than 'happy-happy-joy-joy let's-all-get-along' posts or 'let's-have-a-boring-but -important-conversation-about-politics.'"

In her RRU Pocket Class, she explains how social media users end up seeing more emotionally charged content than they otherwise would, thanks to algorithms that prioritize engaging content.

That kind of content doesn't bring us together. It polarizes us, she says.

And while polarization has gotten a bad rap, it isn't inherently bad, Hodson says, noting that differing opinions shouldn't just be tolerated, they should be welcome.

"We actually need a certain amount of productive disagreement."

She says that polarization becomes problematic when strong emotional responses lead to demonizing other people or groups, leading to communication breakdown.

If someone who is left leaning disagrees with someone who is right leaning, even though their claims may initially seem polarized, she says sometimes there is a chance for a productive conversation if each person is willing to be open and listen to one another and the feelings driving the differences. But when people with opposing views start to judge and even demonize each other, all hope is lost in finding a productive solution.

"So that's the kind of polarization we want to mitigate, but that's also the kind of polarization that is dialed up to eleven because emotional content, especially negative emotional content, travels so well on social media."

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