Only 13% of Reform UK voters saw content from someone they knew, compared with 23% of Green party voters. According to the IPPR research, algorithms are fueling isolation and division on social media, with Reform UK voters most likely to see content from brands and news organizations. Broader survey findings show minimal personal connections in users' feeds, with influencers and ads dominating.
Of the top four posts in users' most used social media feeds, 18% came from someone a user actually knew, 35% were from influencers, public figures or recommended content, and 29% were from adverts and brands. The IPPR report indicates that the 'social' element of social media is being stripped away. According to The Guardian - UK News, Dr Sofia Ropek-Hewson described how people with different political views have different algorithms to the extent that they see quite a different amount of personal content.
It's really interesting that people with different political views have different algorithms to the extent that they see quite a different amount of personal content.
She also noted that we don't see what anyone else sees, and that makes it harder to build common cultures and to challenge people. Social media companies have a clear commercial incentive to maximize time spent on their platforms, as stated by IPPR report authors. The UK government has committed to tackling addictive features on social media, such as scrolling or 'streaks' that encourage daily usage of apps.
The prime minister recently said he was prepared to act to prevent children becoming hooked on social media at a young age. However, what specific actions the UK government will take to tackle addictive social media features remains unclear, and the long-term effects of algorithmic-driven content on political polarization and social cohesion in the UK are unknown.
We need to be thinking more about what commercial algorithms are feeding different political groups. So many of these platforms look increasingly like TikTok, which doesn't actually describe itself as a social media platform.
We don't see what anyone else sees, and that makes it harder to build common cultures and to challenge people.
Despite these platforms all mutating to look more like TikTok, I don't think we have to be stuck thinking that social media means one thing. There was a lot of optimism in the early 2000s about what social media could mean and what our online social lives would look like and I think we can develop better platforms with better values underpinning them.