The Welfare Effects of Social Media
The Welfare Effects of Social Media
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DOI：
10.1257/aer.20190658
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发表时间：
2020-03-01
影响因子：
10.7
通讯作者：
Gentzkow, Matthew
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Allcott, Hunt;Braghieri, Luca;Gentzkow, Matthew
社交媒体的兴起既激发了人们对潜在社会效益的乐观情绪，也引发了人们对成瘾、抑郁和政治两极分化等危害的担忧。在一项随机实验中，我们发现，在2018年美国中期选举前的四周内停用Facebook（i）减少了在线活动，同时增加了线下活动，如单独看电视和与家人和朋友社交;（ii）减少了事实新闻知识和政治两极分化;（iii）增加了主观幸福感。以及（iv）导致实验后Facebook使用量的持续大幅减少。停用降低了Facebook的实验后估值，这表明传统指标可能夸大了消费者剩余。
The rise of social media has provoked both optimism about potential societal benefits and concern about harms such as addiction, depression, and political polarization. In a randomized experiment, we find that deactivating Facebook for the four weeks before the 2018 US midterm election (i) reduced online activity, while increasing offline activities such as watching TV alone and socializing with family and friends; (ii) reduced both factual news knowledge and political polarization; (iii) increased subjective well-being; and (iv) caused a large persistent reduction in post-experiment Facebook use. Deactivation reduced post-experiment valuations of Facebook, suggesting that traditional metrics may overstate consumer surplus.