The Role of Social Media in Generating Social Cohesion

We live in very uncertain times; staring into a future that involves unpredictable climate change with calamitous consequences, community action is needed now more than ever. Despite this, there appears to be an increasing breakdown in the social contract between governments, institutions and communities that is inhibiting widespread change.

Economists have generally emphasised the positive roles that communities play. From creating local markets to providing mutual insurance, communities have long been recognised as a vital ingredient of economic success. However, the same communities also have the potential to create substantial segregation and disenfranchisement. South Africa, where I am from, is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Nowhere is this inequality better seen than in the spatial divide between communities. Although progress has been made in integrating schools and other public places, South Africans remain sharply divided along racial and socioeconomic lines. This group polarisation engenders a society that is defined by mistrust, violence and social conflicts between communities. In fact, David et al. estimated that, in 2013, less than a third of South Africans often talk with someone from a different racial group.

This lack of social cohesion between communities, whether racial or otherwise, is currently rampant across the world. For example, the recent protests in India over its divisive Citizenship Amendment Act have been driven by a feeling that the act unfairly discriminates against the Muslim community. Furthermore, nowhere is the rising mistrust between communities better seen than in the United States, where partisan politics is dividing the country into two groups with seemingly separate identities. In fact, in 2010, nearly 50 percent of Republicans felt somewhat or very unhappy at the prospect of inter-party marriage. This lack of social cohesion is particularly dangerous as it is leading to a breakdown in the efficacy of public institutions. If leaders of the institutions do not represent, or actively discriminate against, large portions of the population, the institutions cannot function effectively.

One of the most important changes since the early 1990s, when partisanship began to increase dramatically, has been the expansion of social media. As of January 2019, Facebook had 2.27 billion monthly active users globally. While social media can be used to generate meaningful communications, they also have the potential to dramatically limit exposure to information that does not align with communities’ already-established beliefs. This creates what Harvard Law School’s Cass Sunstein calls ‘echo chambers’, where like-minded people simply act to reinforce each other’s beliefs and prejudices.

However, the good news is that these echo chambers are not unbreakable. I believe that a large part of the segregation that we are seeing worldwide is born out of an ignorance of what other communities experience and value. In the absence of meaningful contact, it is easy to believe that the unseen groups are fundamentally different. Such behaviour likely leads to unconscious segregation in which individuals find it hard to relate to other communities, as they feel that they have no shared values or experiences between them. However, this means that if social media can be harnessed to illustrate the commonalities between different groups, it has the potential to generate significant social cohesion. Values such as perseverance in the face of adversity, kindness, and the importance of family may manifest differently in different social settings, but they are, by and large, shared values that we all cherish. If social media can be used to highlight these common values and experiences, it can be a powerful instrument for generating social cohesion.

I saw the power of this in the leadup to South Africa playing in the Rugby World Cup final last year. About a week before the final, a video started trending on social media in South Africa about the story of our captain, Siyamthanda (Siya) Kolisi. The video told the story of how Kolisi started from very humble beginnings and, against all the odds, worked his way into the national team. He spoke about the importance of his family and his community, and how their love, support and time pushed him to greatness. Speaking in multiple languages, he spoke about how he represents the country – everyone who has ever been hungry, everyone who has ever struggled financially, and everyone who has had to overcome great odds to succeed. People from all social groups were sharing the video, along with messages of love for their country and support for the team. By highlighting his own story, and the common value of persevering in the face of adversity, Siya Kolisi managed to transcend social boundaries and generate social cohesion.

After the national team won the World Cup, the Human Sciences Research Council, working with Cape Town-based company biNu, conducted a sentiment analysis to assess the impact on social cohesion and positivity in the country. The survey elicited responses from 6,945 survey respondents; 88 percent of respondents said that sport adds to their sense of belonging to South Africa, while 85 percent thought that sport can help South Africa to deal with xenophobia and racism. Furthermore, when asked to name their favourite player in the national team, the captain, Siya Kolisi came out on top with 49 percent. While there is little information on the design of the survey, and whether it was nationally representative, these results give us a glimpse into the potential that shared experiences have in generating social cohesion.

This is where the international development community has the potential to leverage their knowledge in order to generate group integration. The international development community is filled with intelligent people researching fascinating topics - many of which have to do with shared values/experiences. Two obvious examples include labour market struggles and financial savings. However, one of the main problems with the development literature is that its findings are scarcely heard outside of the community itself. Thus, the insightful findings that often, intentionally or unintentionally, highlight common values do not generate the social cohesion effects that they could have.

I believe that one of the ways that international development can change this, and use its research to shape social perceptions, is through partnering with the youth to disseminate its findings in innovative forms on social media. This concept is not new to private sector businesses; there are countless social media ‘influencers’ in the fashion, travelling, and lifestyle industries who promote certain brands, destinations, or tips that they believe their followers would find interesting. These influencers have a powerful and widespread reach, with individuals amassing well over 1 million followers on platforms such as Instagram.

In a similar vein, I think that the international development community should engage with young, energetic individuals who can use their social media influence to spread pertinent research that highlights commonalities between social groups. International development organisations, like The United Nations or The World Bank, can provide these ‘development influencers’ with research, and work with them to market it in a format that is both appealing and highlights shared human values. Greta Thunberg provides a glimpse into the potential impact that these development influencers could have. Despite not actively trying to be an influencer on social media, she has over 9.5 million followers on Instagram. Although not everyone will reach Greta’s fame, imagine if we had thousands of young, passionate individuals, backed by development organisations, using the power of social media to highlight stories that promote the shared human experience?

A lack of social cohesion is at the heart of the breakdown in the social contract between communities that is inhibiting widespread community action. However, I believe that this social cohesion can be improved by using social media to highlight common values and experiences that transcend group boundaries. The international development community, and its innovative research, has not been adequately represented by the youth on social media; it’s time for that to change.

Disclaimer: This is an essay that I submitted to the Oxford Forum for International Development's Essay Competition jointly run by The University of Oxford, UNDP and The New York Times. It placed second.