Does Social Media Divide?

This post may be a bit off-topic for the class, but my husband has been listening to a song titled "Malcolm on Twitter" by Passport Rav for the past few days so it is on my mind. After listening to it several times I began thinking about the central questions he is asking: If Malcolm X,  a controversial figure even in his own time, had twitter, how would that change how he was perceived, and his effectiveness as a leader? Would Martin Luther King have been as outspoken a leader if he was constantly being trolled online? Would his message have remained as consistent?

As we scroll through our Facebook and Twitter feeds, I'm sure we have all seen articles discussing social media's propensity to divide people, despite the intention for it to do the opposite. Some articles, like this one from UC Berkeley, claim that the algorithms used in social media platforms create echo chambers in which people are only exposed to content that reflects their already held values and opinions. They claim that this further divides people politically, because people are only exposed to information with which they agree, and it becomes easy to essentialize those who hold different views as completely stupid, wrong, or even the enemy. I think this is the kind of division that Passport Nav is getting at in his song. Does social media make it more difficult to have civil conversations surrounding heated topics? When everyone is free to respond immediately, without face-to-face interaction and with high emotional stakes, do those who might have been vocal leaders get silenced? 

Other articles, like this one from Huffington Post, claim that social media use can contribute to economic divides due to who is and isn't included in certain social networks. They claim that those who already have economic and social advantages are likely to have large social media networks with others who share their status, which they can leverage to further increase their social capital and economic advantages. 

What do you think? Are there ways that social media can also unite us?