There is considerable disagreement among scholars as to whether social media fuels polarization in society. However, a few have considered the possibility that polarization may instead affect social media usage. To address this gap, the study uses Dutch panel data to test directionality in the relationship between social media use and affective polarization. No support was found for the hypothesis that social media use contributed to the level of affective polarization. Instead, the results lend support to the hypothesis that it was the level of affective polarization that affected subsequent use of social media. The results furthermore reveal heterogeneous patterns among individuals, depending on their previous level of social media usage, and across different social media platforms. The study gives reason to call into question the predominating assumption in previous research that social media is a major driver of polarization in society.

关于社交媒体是否助长了社会两极分化，学者之间存在相当大的分歧。然而，一些人已经考虑了两极分化可能会影响社交媒体使用的可能性。为了解决这一差距，该研究使用荷兰面板数据来测试社交媒体使用与情感极化之间关系的方向性。没有发现支持社交媒体使用导致情感两极分化水平的假设。相反，结果支持了这样一种假设，即情感两极分化的程度影响了社交媒体的后续使用。结果进一步揭示了个人之间的异质模式，这取决于他们以前的社交媒体使用水平以及不同社交媒体平台. 该研究有理由质疑先前研究中的主要假设，即社交媒体是社会两极分化的主要驱动因素。