‘Unfriending’ Trump supporters is just another example of how we isolate ourselves online

[Commentary] In the past week alone, thousands of Facebook users have publicly promised to unfriend each and every Donald Trump supporter in their network, regardless of -- in the words of one Trump critic -- “how long I’ve known you or how close we are.” Political scuffles aren’t unusual among friends and acquaintances, of course -- it’s part of the reason the topic is typically never raised in polite conversation. But in an era where Americans are both more polarized than ever and more able to tailor their environments to their preexisting views, standard disagreements have veered in an ugly, intolerant direction: one that’s inconsistent, critics argue, with our most fundamental democratic values.

In the era of News Feeds and content-blockers, however, avoiding discourse and dissent has never been so easy. Geographically and socially speaking, people have always clustered with other people who share their background and views: If you’re a Republican, or an atheist, or a member of the middle class, then it’s likely that your best friend and next door neighbor are, too. But thanks to the proliferation of partisan media and the rise of intermediaries like Facebook and Google News, it’s now also possible to tailor the information you get to your preexisting politics. And while activists have long championed the Internet as a means to encounter more diverse and “cross-cutting,” or opposite, views, experience suggests that hasn’t happened quite the way we thought it would.