Log into Facebook or Twitter today and it’s likely that you’ll find something political within the first few posts of your news feed. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, a significant number of people are feeling strained by the massive amount of political discourse on social media this election year.
The survey found that one-third of social media users are “worn out” by the increased amount of political content on their feeds. Even more — one-half of users — described interactions with people who possess different political views as “stressful and frustrating,” the NewsHour’s Courtney Norris reported.
Meanwhile, recent reporting and analysis showed that business is booming for Facebook pages that post provocative content containing misleading information. This week on the NewsHour, science correspondent Miles O’Brien discussed how Twitter bots — mimicking humans — are influencing the dialogue among social media users.
With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, the political sharing may die down. But what can we learn from 2016’s divisive social media climate? And how much influence will social media have when voters go to the polls on Nov. 8th?
Joining us at 2 p.m. EDT on Friday for an online conversation about the implications of this study will be Pew Research Center’s Aaron Smith (@aaron_w_smith) and Maeve Duggan (@maeveyd), Jon Keegan, visual correspondent at The Wall Street Journal (@jonkeegan), and Craig Silverman, founding editor of Buzzfeed Canada (@CraigSilverman). Follow along on Twitter via the hashtag #NewsHourChats.
[Source:-PBS News hour]
