SAT R&W: Cross-Text Connections

Social media platforms have fundamentally degraded the quality of public discourse. Because content is ranked by engagement rather than accuracy, inflammatory falsehoods spread further and faster than carefully reasoned arguments. The predictable result is a public that is poorly informed, emotionally reactive, and increasingly hostile to nuance. If we are serious about preserving democratic deliberation, we must consider whether algorithmic curation of political speech is compatible with the civic requirements of a healthy democracy.

Critics of social media ignore the democratic gains these platforms have enabled. Marginalised communities that previously had no access to major media outlets can now organise, share testimony, and shape public narratives directly. Movements demanding racial justice, disability rights, and LGBTQ+ protections have successfully used these platforms to reach audiences that traditional media systematically excluded. The very features critics decry — virality, emotional resonance — are precisely the mechanisms that have amplified voices long suppressed by gatekeepers.