Dr Soukhin Chakraborty
Never before in the history of civilization the human society was as polarized as it is today. This trend of polarization is seen in almost every democratic country.
Polarization on various grounds is not a new phenomenon in human society. As we understand from anthropology that humans have always tended to form an ‘In and Out group’. Gradually we became a large society with multiple ethnic, religious and ideological identities.
The Kofi Annan Foundation which works on various emerging and fragile democratic countries across Asia and Africa, in their report has noted that the political climate of polarization within the society has very often led these countries towards civil war. But since the last decade, this polarization-politics has been noticed in the so-called ‘Established’ democracies around the world like the USA, Brazil, and India. This type of polarization is the reason why the supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building following his defeat in 2020 presidential election or in Brazil the supporters of Bolsenero attacking the opposition supporters following his defeat.
Even though there is no single reason that is responsible for the polarization of the society but issues like rising income inequality and social injustice due to neoliberal and capitalist economic system, war and environmental pollution led migration etc are some of the reasons behind the rise in polarisation in society.
Most of these causes are not new, but now, with the dominance of the Internet since the beginning of last decade, a new tool for polarization has arrived, i.e. Social Media. Social Media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ( now X ), and TikTok are the most popular ones, and most of them are owned by 3,4 companies. For example, Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which are now owned by Billionaire Elon Musk. Because these social media apps are easy to use and are free of cost so they are gaining popularity among all age groups and are popular in almost every country.
The sole aim of every social media platform is to motivate the user to use the platform as much as possible. For this purpose, they always try to influence user’s behaviour without their knowledge. Social Media Algorithms are created for this purpose; these algorithms motivate a user to keep himself engaged with a particular platform. Social media algorithms are certain rules that determine what kind of content or posts you will see more on your newsfeed and what kind of content will be suggested to you. This way it helps in fulfilling the company’s goal of more engagement means more money.
It has been observed that Facebook’s algorithm is designed in such a way that it prioritizes those content in the news feed that will elicit the most emotional response from the user. While doing this it is often seen that fake news or information is recommended and allowed to spread without any verification.
It has been observed that Facebook’s algorithm is designed in such a way that it prioritizes those contents in the news feed that will elicit the most emotional response from the user. While doing this, it is often seen that fake news or information is recommended and allowed to spread without any verification. Social media algorithms tend to filter content in such a way that if someone searches for one particular type of political or religious post or page a few times thereafter, he will be suggested a similar type of content only. Pages or posts of opposite opinions won’t be suggested to him. Due to this filtering of content, social media platforms create an ‘Echo Chamber’ around us based on a particular type of opinion, and in this ‘eco chamber’, there is no room for the opposing opinion.
A 2017 Survey was done among Twitter users in Japan. In the survey, two groups of Twitter users were selected, where both groups follow people from opposing political ideologies. When the participants were asked to discuss amongst themselves or engage in a common discussion point showed little to no interest. They showed no interest to participate in a discussion when the matter of discussion did not match or overlap with their ideals. This showed that these users couldn’t break out of the eco chamber of their own ideal.
The type of political, social or religious content a user posts or views from his/her account, the algorithm leads to only similar kinds of content is suggested and highlighted to him. By filtering contents, the social media platforms create a ‘ Filter Bubble’. Studies have shown that in this filter bubble and the resultant echo chamber, the user tends to develop positive opinions about the kind of posts he often views, but this, in turn, often makes him incapable of differentiating between what is fact and what is fake. Often, he is exposed to falsehood, but he accepts it as truth. Filter bubbles also lead to the development of a negative point of view towards the posts and contents supporting the opposing opinion.
It is also observed that this negative attitude towards the opposite opinion turns into hatred due to being in the filter bubble for a long time. This phenomenon is seen in India, where various right-wing and Hindutva pages and accounts continue to share false and half-truth information about our history and historical facts. By doing this, on the one hand, they try to glorify their ideals, and on the other hand, they share misinformation and fake news against those who oppose their ideology, like the leftists and seculars. So that a negative opinion is created among the users against the political opponents. Social media creates a situation where there is no middle ground between two ideals, be it political or religious or any other topic. Although attempts to polarize society have been around for centuries, social media, with its algorithm, has made the task easier, and it has been exploited by those who want to divide people for their gains.
As a way out of this situation, some people might think taking a person out of this eco chamber or removing the filter bubble built around them will change their perspective, but it has not been the case. Having been in this type of filtered environment in social media for years, when he is exposed to opposing content, he perceives this as an attack on his beliefs. Therefore, to break this filter bubble and create a better unpolarized environment in social media, there is a need for greater accountability of the social media companies to tackle fake news as well as the goodwill of the political parties across all political spectrums as well as religious and social groups. There is also a need to mediate productive discussions between people of opposing views. Along with these, steps must be taken to root out the social causes of polarization like social injustice and rising income inequality.