Most People on Twitter Are in Echo Chambers of Celebrity, Not Ideology ⇥ niemanlab.org

Joshua Benton, Nieman Lab:

In other words: Most people don’t follow a bunch of political “elites” on Twitter — a group that, for these authors’ purposes, also includes news organizations. But those who do typically follow many more people they agree with politically than people who they don’t. Conservatives follow many more conservatives; liberals follow many more liberals. When it comes to retweeting, people are even more likely to share their political allies than their enemies. And when people do retweet their enemies, they’re often dunking on how dumb/terrible/wrong/evil those other guys are. And conservatives do this more than liberals, overall.

But remember: Most people follow zero of these politics-focused accounts and most of those who follow any follow only a few. You’re weird.

Much like “cancel culture” panic, ideological Twitter bubbles seem like the kind of thing that affect a disproportionately loud and status obsessed group. Do not worry: I am weird and, if you read this and recognized the Nieman Lab credit, you are weird too.