# Rise of Social Media Could Be Linked to The Rise of Populism The rise of social media could related to the rise of populism in the last decade. When I think about the [[Uses and Gratifications Theory]] the two events seem correlated. **Social media gave voice to everyone, and as people tend to read what pleases them, Facebook and co. allowed for popularization of opinions (fake news) that were suppressed before, by the editorial integrity of yesterday's mass media.** Yes, before Facebook we did have tabloids but they weren't nearly as popular as Facebook is today, and not everyone could afford to publish one. There’s also the below quoted paper that agrees that social media is bad for democracy and that it amplifies political polarization and causes populism. It was quoted by [[Jonathan Haidt]]'s article [[Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid]]. ![[Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid#^hkmian]] See also: [[Social Media Gave Birth to Fake News]].