The Welfare Effects of Social Media
Top Cited Papers
- 1 March 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Economic Association in American Economic Review
- Vol. 110 (3), 629-676
- https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20190658
Abstract
The rise of social media has provoked both optimism about potential societal benefits and concern about harms such as addiction, depression, and political polarization. In a randomized experiment, we find that deactivating Facebook for the four weeks before the 2018 US midterm election (i) reduced online activity, while increasing offline activities such as watching TV alone and socializing with family and friends; (ii) reduced both factual news knowledge and political polarization; (iii) increased subjective well-being; and (iv) caused a large persistent reduction in post-experiment Facebook use. Deactivation reduced postexperiment valuations of Facebook, suggesting that traditional metrics may overstate consumer surplus.Keywords
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