"Social Media is a threat to social cohesion in the 21st century."

Debate by Rishan Raja and Jess Osborn

Social cohesion is the extent to which people in society are bound together and share common values. It is based on people working together, despite their differences. A cohesive society treats all cultures, races, sexual identities, and genders equally. However, due to the increased use of social media across the world, a cohesive society is threatened. According to Forbes statistics in 2023, nearly 60% of the global population use social media. That’s 4.9 billion people with access to at least one social media platform. The increased ease of sharing ideas across the internet gives a platform for people to share extreme views and false accusations. The growth of social media means the prospect of a cohesive society is slipping further away.

Whilst social media’s effortless sharing of ideas provides a platform that could be used beneficially, it’s increasingly common to see these platforms being exploited and used to share negative and controversial ideologies. Social media has given a voice to extremist groups and has allowed them to spread their ideas. According to Virginia Commonwealth University, 87% of individuals engaging in political extremism have used social media to promote an extremist agenda. The anonymity provided by social media enables individuals to hide behind a screen, granting them the confidence to share controversial ideas and views. We see this in extremist groups such as ISIS, who use social media to promote their ideologies and recruit. Due to the use of cookies, and social media feeds being tailored to what an individual is interested in, such groups have taken advantage of this and have manipulated their extremist ideologies to appear as the official beliefs of Islam. Sara Khan, director at the anti-extremist group ‘Inspire’, describes how ISIS uses “aggressive social media campaigns” to target and indoctrinate young or vulnerable individuals. A cohesive society is when all “protected characteristics” of a person are respected, and social media does not allow this.

Another example is Andrew Tate: an influencer who used social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook to spread misogynistic views. He was even labelled the ‘King of Toxic Masculinity’ with Rosie Carter, director of policy at ‘Hope Not Hate’ saying “Tate’s misogynist, homophobic and racist content is seen online by millions of young people. His confidence, his money and his lifestyle are all carefully crafted to make his brand of hateful content seem aspirational”. With more than 4.5 million followers on Instagram (before he was banned), Tate utilised these large-scale platforms to spread his beliefs. This specific instance raised much controversy over recent years and is a perfect example of how social media is making it increasingly easier to corrupt young, vulnerable individuals who are still forming new habits, beliefs and opinions. In February 2023, counter-extremism workers warned of a rapid rise in cases related to Andrew Tate, being referred to them by schools. They reported of male pupils having verbal outbursts at female teachers and pupils. According to The Guardian, one pupil said to a teacher, “What do you know? You’re a woman. You can’t teach me anything. Your place is in the kitchen”. Like I said previously, a cohesive society is achieved when all cultures, races, sexual identities, and genders are treated equally. Social cohesion is when a society is bound together. However, social media threatens this as it has allowed the spread of extremist views and hate, encouraging people to become indoctrinated by propaganda, and influencing the disrespect towards other people’s cultures and identities.

Social cohesion relies on strong relationships and the bounding of a group of people together. However, there has been evidence to suggest that social media has a negative impact on relationships. A study undertaken by Brigham Young University in 2018 found that “the more time an individual spent on social media, the more likely they were to experience a decreased quality in their relationships”. This is due to a number of factors, namely the hold that social media can have over an individual. Social media is designed to be addictive and forces you to keep scrolling. It can create a disconnection between relationships due to the amount of time spent on social media. This can lead to a breakdown in trust between partners, something that a cohesive society relies on. Individuals can become more comfortable looking at their phone rather than forging new relationships in real life, which can lead to a disconnect between your virtual life and reality. Social media also perpetuates jealousy in relationships due to people’s posts and how they appear online. People only post the highlights of their life, never when they are having a bad day. Social media creates an ultra-airbrushed reality and this can lead to people feeling jealous in seeing their friends and partners doing exciting things. This can lead to the breakdown in relationships as people begin to feel jealous of partners and friends. This perceived “polished lifestyle” on social media can lead to false expectations and a sense of “FOMO''. This is when people compare themselves to other people online and become dissatisfied with their life. This will lead to breakdowns in relationships as people don't feel content with their existence and leads to low self-esteem, and potentially, cutting themselves off from society. This threatens social cohesion as people begin to lead isolated and false lives. A cohesive society relies on people being bound together and communicating honestly with each other. Social media allows for people to hide behind screens, therefore, threatens the potential for a cohesive society in the 21st century.

Another issue with regards to social media being a threat to social cohesion is its detrimental impact on mental health. The addictive behaviour analysis of social media is no secret. It was designed to be addictive with its bright colours and notification sounds spiking your dopamine to keep you on it for longer. Now how can we expect this not to be a threat to social cohesion? DataReportal shows that use of social media per day has increased by almost an hour on average in the last 10 years. And the truth that many of us struggle with accepting is that social media leaves us feeling worse about ourselves. It should be telling that the two biggest tech figures in recent history - Bill Gates and Steve Jobs - seldom let their kids play with the very products they helped create.

Unfortunately, it’s seeming increasingly common for social media to be used as a platform to spread hatred and with the added benefit of being able to hide behind a screen, what’s stopping it from happening? The UN Broadband Commission warned in 2015 that with 73% of women and girls using social media having encountered some form of online harassment, cyber violence against women and girls risked becoming “a 21st-century global pandemic”. And by no means is it just girls either. The National Institutes of Health discovered that for each hour increase in social media usage in both boys and girls, there was a 13% increase in their risk of depression. These horrifying statistics alone highlight the negative impact of social media so how, after hearing that, could anyone argue that social media and social cohesion could ever work in harmony? Victims on cyber bullying experience heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and fear, isolation and self-doubt, all of which directly contradict idea of social cohesion by definition (that being the strengthing of relationships and the sense of solidarity among members of a community).

Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are used internationally to post just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. Lenses, filters, captions, editing, all combined for a singular post. And how do you feel after seeing that post? Glad that they had fun at the party they went to last night? Happy that they’re enjoying their holiday in Spain whilst you’re lying on your bed, carelessly scrolling through mind-numbing content? No? Exactly! A recent global study conducted by KasperSky Lab reveals that social media users are interacting less face-to-face than in the past because of this newfound ability to constantly communicate and stay in touch online. I personally think that with in-person interactions being critical for fostering empathy and understanding this just goes to show that social media evidently is a threat to social cohesion. As Bill Murray said: “Social media is training us to compare our lives instead of appreciating everything we are”.

On top of this, social media, in and of itself, is the ideal platform to spread fake news. With more than 70% of US adults using social media for news articles, fake news is becoming yet another global pandemic. As mentioned earlier (for example), extremist groups such as ISIS have used this with the intent to indoctrinate young minds. Donald Trump (former US President) was, according to The Guardian, the largest source of election misinformation through social media. Countless influencers have entirely diminished the impact of global warming on our planet claiming that the risk was far too small. But don’t be fooled into thinking that these are the only ways in which fake news is spread! In recent years, there’s been an AI ‘boom’ in which deepfakes have been used countless time all over social media. Not only have these been implemented politically to persuade voters decisions, but also for the sole purpose of fame a social media prominence. This just goes to show how social media, whilst being used for news articles by the vast majority of US adults, has more and more fake new each day. More and more misleading, false, strongly bias information that is being not only accessed, but accepted by the vulnerable. By minds young and old.

To conclude, I think that it’s clear to see how social media is a threat to social cohesion. With addiction, fake news, negative impacts on mental health, and an easy platform to promote extremist ideologies, I’m sure you will all stand with me in arguing that social media platforms are doing more harm than they are good. A concept designed to unite society is, in fact, drawing us further and further apart. The statistics alone make it almost impossible to argue against the motion so I must urge you all… to vote for the motion.

Do you think that social media is a threat to social cohesion in the 21st century??

• 0%Yes
• 0%No