iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

As Twitter became X, use frequency has become strongly correlated with dislike of Democrats. The more you hate Democrats, the more you post and visit X.

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Posting is correlated with affective polarization: 😡 The most partisan users — those who love their party and despise the other — are more likely to post about politics 🥊 The result? A loud angry minority dominates online politics, which itself can drive polarization (see doi.org/10.1073/pnas...)

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Twitter/X is a story on its own: 🔴 While users have become more Republican 💥 POSTING has completely transformed: it has moved nearly ❗70 percentage points❗ from Democrat-dominated to Republican-leaning.

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Politically, the landscape is shifting too: 🔴 Nearly all platforms have become more Republican 🔵 But they remain Democratic-leaning overall 🏃‍♂️ Democrats are fleeing to smaller platforms (Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon)

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Legacy platforms are losing ground: ⬇️ Facebook ⬇️ YouTube ⬇️ Twitter/X But ⬆️ TikTok and Reddit "Other" platforms - including Bluesky - has not seen significant growth as a whole. (But as we'll see, huge compositional changes)

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Overall social media use is also declining. Between 2020 and 2024, more Americans — especially the youngest (18–24) and oldest (65+) — report using no social media at all. A small group of heavy users remains, but the middle is thinning out.

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Petter Törnberg @pettertornberg.com · 19/01/2026

📉 Visiting and posting on X and Facebook has collapsed: nearly 50% drop! On X, it is mostly Democrats who have become inactive. Many still occasionally log on, but rarely and quietly.

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The impact of AI is not just a matter of what AI can do. It is shaped by the economy in which AI is forged. Today, AI is emerging inside technofeudalism — built on lock-in, dependency, and rent extortion. Our new preprint explores what this means for the coming AI society. osf.io/preprints/so...

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Petter Törnberg @pettertornberg.com · 16/01/2026

🚨 We are entering the AI society. After two decades of platforms reshaping markets, communication, and governance, a new shift is underway: AI is transforming society. What should we expect from the 'AI society'? 🧵 📄 Our new paper faces this question: osf.io/preprints/so...

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Petter Törnberg @pettertornberg.com · 08/12/2025

This paper is now out in Artificial Intelligence Review Bottom line: using LLMs to "simulate humans" sits in a no-man’s-land between theory and empirics—too opaque to function as a model, too ungrounded to count as evidence. Validation remains the core challenge. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Petter Törnberg @pettertornberg.com · 04/11/2025

Meanwhile, climate researchers and activists are portrayed as emotional and irrational: 😢 Crying protesters ⚠️ Angry crowds 🚫 “Ideological fanatics” The contrast is deliberate: Climate denial looks calm and factual. Climate action looks hysterical and extreme.

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Petter Törnberg @pettertornberg.com · 04/11/2025

Most people study what misinformation says. We decided to study how it looks. Using novel multi-modal AI methods, we study 17,848 posts by top climate denial accounts - and uncovered a new front in the misinformation war. Here's what it means 🧵 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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Twitter/X is a story on its own: 🔴 While users have become more Republican 💥 POSTING has completely transformed: it has moved nearly ❗50 percentage points❗ from Democrat-dominated to slightly Republican-leaning.

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Overall social media use is declining. Between 2020 and 2024, more Americans — especially the youngest (18–24) and oldest (65+) — report using no social media at all. A small group of heavy users remains, but the middle is thinning out.

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Is social media dying? How much has Twitter changed as it became X? Which party now dominates the conversation? Using nationally representative ANES data from 2020 & 2024, I map how the U.S. social media landscape has transformed. Here are the key take-aways 🧵 arxiv.org/abs/2510.25417

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Who posts about politics on Facebook? 🔍 More affectively polarized voters post more - making our politics seem more polarized than it is (the infamous 'social media prism' @chrisbail.bsky.social) 📉 By 2024, political posting on Facebook dropped across the board — but especially among Democrats.

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Looking closer at the frequency of use, Facebook shifted right too. From 2020 → 2024: 🔵 Strong Democrats use it less 🔴 Strong Republicans use it more The platform’s core audience is now clearly more Republican.

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Overall platform reach, 2020 → 2024 👇 📱 Facebook & YouTube: still near-universal, little change. 📱 Instagram & TikTok: surged, especially among Dems. 📱 Twitter/X: flat or declining, biggest drop among Dems. 📱 Reddit: grew a lot on the left. The partisan sorting shows up in who sticks around.

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Here’s the partisan lean of platform audiences, 2020 → 2024. 📊 Instagram, TikTok, Reddit stay solidly Dem. 📊 Facebook & YouTube: modestly rightward. 📊 Twitter/X: sharpest move right. 📊 “Other” (Threads, Bluesky, etc.): flipped hard from red to blue. The sorting is unmistakable.

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Looking at party affiliation, the partisan map hasn’t moved much outside of Twitter/X: 🔵 Instagram, TikTok, Reddit → firmly Democratic ⚪ Facebook, YouTube → still mixed 🔴 Twitter/X → the big flip The social media ecosystem has become more sorted.

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Posting on Twitter tells the same story. 🔵 In 2020, posting on Twitter was correlated with being polarized Democrat. 🔴 By 2024, that gap reversed — Democrats pulled back, Republicans leaned in. Political posting on Twitter/X is now correlated with being polarized Republican.

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This is where it gets wild 👇 In 2020, Twitter use was highest among people who loved Democrats and disliked Republicans. By 2024, it completely flipped: the more polarized Republican you are, the more you use Twitter/X. From blue stronghold → red megaphone. All for just $44 billion.

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