The Welfare Effects of Social Media
Hunt Allcott, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, Matthew Gentzkow
Summary
The authors ran a randomized experiment in which participants were paid to deactivate their Facebook accounts for four weeks before the 2018 US midterm elections. Deactivation reduced time online, increased offline socializing and TV watching, lowered factual news knowledge and political polarization, and modestly improved self-reported well-being. After the experiment, participants reduced their Facebook use, and many lowered their valuation of the platform, suggesting that habitual use exceeds its private benefits for some users.
Key findings
- Four weeks of Facebook deactivation increased subjective well-being and freed up time reallocated to offline activities.
- Deactivation reduced both factual news knowledge and measured political polarization.
- Post-experiment, treated users used Facebook less and many revised their willingness-to-pay valuation of it downward.
Subjects & keywords
Cite this paper
Hunt Allcott, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, & Matthew Gentzkow (2020). The Welfare Effects of Social Media. American Economic Review. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20190658
@article{allcott2020welfare,
author = {Hunt Allcott and Luca Braghieri and Sarah Eichmeyer and Matthew Gentzkow},
title = {The Welfare Effects of Social Media},
journal = {American Economic Review},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.1257/aer.20190658},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20190658}
}