Are a few people ruining the internet for the rest of us?

Summary

When I scroll through social media, I often leave demoralized, with the sense that the entire world is on fire and people are inflamed with hatred towards one another. Yet, when I step outside into the streets of New York City to grab a coffee or meet a friend for lunch, it feels downright tranquil. The contrast between the online world and my daily reality has only gotten more jarring.Since my own work is focused on topics such as intergroup conflict, misinformation, technology and climate change, I’m aware of the many challenges facing humanity. Yet, it seems striking that people online seem to be just as furious about the finale of The White Lotus or the latest scandal involving a YouTuber. Everything is either the best thing ever or the absolute worst, no matter how trivial. Is that really what most of us are feeling? No, as it turns out. Our latest research suggests that what we’re seeing online is a warped image created by a very small group of highly active users.In a paper I recently published with Claire Robertson and Kareena del Rosario, we found extensive evidence that social media is less like a neutral reflection of society and more like a funhouse mirror. It amplifies the loudest and most extreme voices while muting the moderate, the nuanced and the boringly reasonable. And much of that distortion, it turns out, can be traced back to a handful of hyperactive online voices. Just 10% of users produce roughly 97% of political tweets.Let’s take Elon Musk’s own platform, X, as an example. Despite being home to hundreds of millions of users, a tiny fraction of them generate the vast majority of political content. For instance, Musk posted 1,494 times in his first 15 days of implementing government cuts for the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge)earlier this year. He was, essentially, writing non-stop. And many of his posts spread misinformation to his 221 million followers.On 2 February he wrote, “Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax doll...