Your political outbursts on Facebook may be affecting no one

Facebook seems to be the platform where we all tend to frequently expend our energy justifying, promoting and sometimes defending political opinions. More often than not status shares foment conflict among friends.

However, If you thought it’s all for a good cause, you may be wrong.  According to new research from social media marketing firm Rantic, these social media posts barely move people to change their opinions. After surveying more than 10,000 people on Facebook, spread evenly across political affiliations, Rantic found that 94 per cent of Republicans, 92 per cent of Democrats, and 85 per cent of independents say they have never changed their view of an issue because of a Facebook post.



Nearly one-third of Facebook users surveyed said social media is not an appropriate forum for political discourse.  Further, respondents from each political association admitted they’ve un-friended people on Facebook because of their political opinions.



With politics governing social media ahead of the US presidential elections, efforts to avoid politics completely have also mushroomed. Facebook groups are in favor of keeping politics off Facebook and tools are being introduced to keep news feeds clean of any undesirable political posts.

This article originally appeared on QUARTZ.