Social media are polarizing not because they isolate us with likeminded others, as often thought, but because they provide spaces where we create social identities that increasingly align with our political preferences. “This drives conflict and creates an all-encompassing division between two homogeneous and opposed political tribes,” concludes digital geographer Petter Törnberg in a new study. “The internet is thus less of an echo chamber, and more like the Lord of the Flies.” The study is now published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
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Source: Phys.org