

As social networks have become pervasive around the world, they’ve been used as tools for social change. Democratic revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt were coordinated and documented on Facebook. The #MeToo movement took its name from a Twitter hashtag, turning into an international movement against sexual harassment in the workplace.
Even before the social media platforms Telegram and Parler were used to organize the invasion of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the civic role of social media had become inescapably massive. What citizens—and government leaders—do online has real implications for the health of our democracy and our society.
But the social media tools most widely used today were not designed with citizens in mind—they were designed to allow college students to flirt and co-workers to stay in touch. As companies like Facebook have become multibillion dollar enterprises, they've fine-tuned their tools to keep users engaged with highly emotional content, which likely increases political polarization and makes it less likely that social networks can bridge existing social differences.