A like. A share. A friend. A follower. Although social media is a tool for spreading information, a recent study questions whether Facebook is being used to spread racism.
“People are more likely to say things on the Internet, email or even text that they wouldn’t be willing to say otherwise,” said David Markus, an anthropology doctoral candidate who teaches undergraduate courses in race and racism.
The study, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, questioned 623 Internet users. About 95 percent of participants had a current Facebook account and monitored their reactions to racist or supremacist posts, according to a Salon article.
Bruce Floyd, UF’s social media specialist, said social media is used to make things easily shared and commented on.
In the study, the researchers found frequent Facebook users were more likely to join negative messages or trends to feel included.
Markus said this concept is congruent with trends in society, but he warns that posts on the Internet are sometimes just meant to illicit reactions.
“While these big events do trigger massive shifts in perspective, in a lot of ways, people don’t know the opinions on every subject — or didn’t know prior to the access of social media,” he said.
Sean Quinn is the chairman of Action SG, an agency that promotes transparency, accountability and service in UF’s Student Government. Quinn works directly with social media and works to gage trends on campus.
“The computer adds a level of obscurity,” the 20-year-old political science and public relations junior said.
Markus agrees, but does not think the context of the conversation about racism can be solved by using the backspace button.
“Racism is not a thing that will easily be overcome,” he said. “Combatting the trends that we may see can be done using the same tools, but in an age of immediacy ... that’s not going to happen.”
