Context matters in social media

Does the information that people see on social media influence their political views? Is it making people politically more divided? In July 2023, Science published three papers on an unprecedented study of the effects of social media and social media algorithms on political polarization during the United States 2020 presidential election. The authors, who included independent academics and Facebook employees, analyzed a massive dataset on the users of Facebook and Instagram whose news feed was filtered either by the site's default algorithm, which presents posts in a manner most likely to keep users on the site, or delivered chronologically in the order that they came in. The chronological feed led to users' spending less time on the site but did not substantially change their attitudes about politics. The finding has surprised many observers who thought that Facebook contributed to political division. Moreover, the studies signal that research on social media is complicated and requires even more attention.