A growing number of people think social media manipulates and divides people and harms democracy, Pew Research Center said on Thursday, echoing rising concern and tighter scrutiny across the world.
That’s a bad headline, Reuters. Surveys don’t show how things work; they show what people think. I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if it was true that social media was bad for democracy, but this isn’t enough to say that’s the case.
Well, if they were surveying the prevalence of the rumors, then the survey could show how they spread. But it’s not what they did. As you described, it’s a survey about people believing how social media harms democracy.
That’s a bad headline, Reuters. Surveys don’t show how things work; they show what people think. I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if it was true that social media was bad for democracy, but this isn’t enough to say that’s the case.
Well, if they were surveying the prevalence of the rumors, then the survey could show how they spread. But it’s not what they did. As you described, it’s a survey about people believing how social media harms democracy.