Putting the “Social” in Social Media: Hannah Arendt, Political Judgment, and Online Polarization
The quantified metrics of likes, shares, and followers are often likened to currencies of social media. Like dollars and cents, we seek to acquire and accumulate them for the value they confer us. However, while money is valued primarily as a means for exchanging goods and services, the metrics of social media are valued primarily as a means for acquiring social status. Many have already considered how the novel features of social media may affect the communication that occurs on them. Some argue that social media improve political discourse by exposing users to perspectives which they would not otherwise encounter. Others argue that social media worsen it by using personalization algorithms that sort users into filter bubbles which induce polarization, or the tendency for humans to radicalize when they encounter beliefs similar to their own. Empirical research has nonetheless cast suspicion on this argument, with some studies documenting self-filtering in the absence of personalization and others disputing its polarizing effects. As I have argued elsewhere, Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “social” indicates an alternative approach …
