{"id":157,"date":"2025-06-18T08:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=157"},"modified":"2025-06-18T08:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:31:13","slug":"power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally written on 2\/25\/2025<\/em><\/p>\n

A recent article in the Journal of Economic Literature provides a guide to the growing academic literature on the economics of social media<\/span><\/a> platforms. In 2023, 4.76 billion people, sixty percent of the world\u2019s population, were on at least one social media platform. That is nine out of every ten people who have internet access. The average internet user spends almost 2.5 hours daily on such platforms. In some ways, social media platforms are unlike traditional media platforms, such as radio and television. In other ways, they are very similar. The authors define social media platforms as having three components.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, unlike traditional media platforms, where users simply consume content, users generate most of the content on social media platforms. Users share content with others, who can interact with the instigating user. Like traditional media, access to social media platforms is typically free of charge to users. But as the saying goes, if users get a service for free, then the users themselves are the product.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second component is that, like traditional media, advertising revenue provides the finances social media platforms need. While platform content is \u201cfree\u201d in both traditional and social media platforms, advertisers pay to influence users’ spending choices through their advertising.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Third, unlike traditional media platforms, social media platforms use algorithms to deliver advertising and other content to specific users. Social media platforms such as Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram can narrowly target particular users with ads, while traditional media such as TV and radio broadcast their advertising.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The best thing about social media platforms is that users are empowered to create and share their own content with others. Creating and sharing content made possible by social media networks has created the largest increase in international information distribution in history. The time and energy users spend on social media platforms is a testament to the massive benefits users receive.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the worst thing about social media platforms is that users are empowered to create and share their content with others. Creating and sharing content often leads to gross misinformation, hoaxes, hate speech, privacy compromises, and perhaps a worldwide mental health crisis.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The authors note that empirical measures of these benefits and costs are in their infancy. For example, international studies show that social media platforms can reduce, increase, or have no impact on political polarization. Like other disruptive innovations, social media networks have positives and negatives, and that implies there are tradeoffs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally written on 2\/25\/2025 A recent article in the Journal of Economic Literature provides a guide to the growing academic literature on the economics of social media platforms. In 2023, 4.76 billion people, sixty percent of the world\u2019s population, were on at least one social media platform. That is nine out of every ten people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[402],"tags":[1505,1507,1291,1504,1513,1510,1506,1512,1508,1511,821,1514,1509],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-advertising","tag-algorithmic-targeting","tag-content-creation","tag-digital-platforms","tag-internet-economy","tag-media-economics","tag-misinformation","tag-online-advertising","tag-platform-economics","tag-political-polarization","tag-social-media","tag-tech-policy","tag-user-behavior"],"yoast_head":"\nPower and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Originally written on 2\/25\/2025 A recent article in the Journal of Economic Literature provides a guide to the growing academic literature on the economics of social media platforms. In 2023, 4.76 billion people, sixty percent of the world\u2019s population, were on at least one social media platform. That is nine out of every ten people […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-18T12:31:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"christianhartselle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"christianhartselle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"christianhartselle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622\"},\"headline\":\"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-18T12:31:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":421,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"advertising\",\"algorithmic targeting\",\"content creation\",\"digital platforms\",\"internet economy\",\"media economics\",\"misinformation\",\"online advertising\",\"platform economics\",\"political polarization\",\"social media\",\"tech policy\",\"user behavior\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/\",\"name\":\"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-18T12:31:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/18\\\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/\",\"name\":\"Econ Briefs\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622\",\"name\":\"christianhartselle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"christianhartselle\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/people.bsu.edu\\\/econbriefs\\\/author\\\/christianhartselle\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs","og_description":"Originally written on 2\/25\/2025 A recent article in the Journal of Economic Literature provides a guide to the growing academic literature on the economics of social media platforms. In 2023, 4.76 billion people, sixty percent of the world\u2019s population, were on at least one social media platform. That is nine out of every ten people […]","og_url":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","og_site_name":"Econ Briefs","article_published_time":"2025-06-18T12:31:13+00:00","author":"christianhartselle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"christianhartselle","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/"},"author":{"name":"christianhartselle","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622"},"headline":"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz","datePublished":"2025-06-18T12:31:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/"},"wordCount":421,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["advertising","algorithmic targeting","content creation","digital platforms","internet economy","media economics","misinformation","online advertising","platform economics","political polarization","social media","tech policy","user behavior"],"articleSection":["Research"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","url":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","name":"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-18T12:31:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/18\/power-and-peril-of-social-media-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Power and Peril of Social Media \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#website","url":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/","name":"Econ Briefs","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/#\/schema\/person\/53f4e0b981fd42f34cbb306b9ad62622","name":"christianhartselle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99dffdd2c9bd490eefa22ed0b6d8d8a277b0368e88948df516427d91d6bf8ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"christianhartselle"},"url":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/author\/christianhartselle\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}