Two-thirds of Americans say social media platforms ‘do more to divide us’: NBC News poll

Social media platforms may be popular, but they are not doing the nation much good, according to the users themselves, said a new NBC News poll.

“Most Americans admit they use social media at least once a day, but they also believe platforms like Facebook and Twitter are doing more to divide the nation than to bring it together,” wrote NBC News senior political analyst Mark Murray, in an analysis of the findings released Sunday.

“Overall, 66% of adults say they use social media once a day or more, versus 33% who don’t. The numbers are essentially unchanged from when the poll asked this same question in 2018 and 2019,” Mr. Murray wrote.

“But 64% of Americans think social media platforms do more to divide us, and that includes majorities of Republicans (77%), independents (65%) and Democrats (54%), as well as majorities of whites (70%), Latinos (56%), young adults (61% and seniors (71%). By contrast, just 27% of all adults believe that those platforms do more to bring us together,” the analyst said.

“Notably, Black respondents are the one demographic split on this question, with 42% saying it’s more divisive, while 40% say it’s more unifying,” Mr. Murray noted.

The NBC News poll was conducted April 17-20, and most of the survey results were released in late April. The margin of error for the 1,000 adult respondents is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.