The impact of social media on polarization in the society
Samana Pranesh, Sayan Gupta

TL;DR
This paper investigates how social media influences societal polarization using activity-driven models, revealing a transition from consensus to polarization driven by media influence, supported by analytical and numerical analysis.
Contribution
It introduces an analytical framework using activity-driven models to understand the impact of social media on societal polarization, highlighting the role of media influence in phase transitions.
Findings
Supercritical pitchfork bifurcation triggers polarization
Transition points from polarization to consensus are analytically derived
Numerical simulations validate the analytical results
Abstract
The advent of social media platforms has revolutionized information consumption patterns, with individuals frequently engaging in these platforms for social interactions. This trend has fostered an environment where people gravitate towards information that aligns with their preconceived notions, leading to the formation of echo chambers and polarization within the society. Recently introduced activity-driven models have been successful in capturing the dynamics of information propagation and polarization. The present study uses this model to explore the impact of social media on a polarized society. By considering the varying influence of media, ranging from exposing individuals to contradictory views to reinforcing existing opinions, a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation is observed, triggering a transition from consensus to polarization. The transition points from polarization to…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsSocial Media and Politics
