Why so much hate? Social media gets the blame

Andrew Mejia, Devon Jones, Giuliana Barberio, Isaiah Thompson | GNP contributors

It seems Americans hate more than they ever have.

There's the intense partisan divide.

There’s a deepening distrust of social institutions.

There’s social media as fuel for the fire.

“Yes,” said Allie Jackson when asked if hate in America has increased. The ECU MBA student blames the political divide.

The Greenville News Project spent the past four months looking for the reasons behind the hate that seems so ever-present in this country.

Political division and social media are major drivers of rising hate in America. It is believed that people are becoming less willing to listen, more isolated in like-minded groups, and more influenced by negative online content.

Not everyone was willing to speak with GNP on the topic of hate.

Reporters reached out to the NC Civil and the Center for American Progress–both focus on preventing the hate–but they did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Neither did several local sources contacted by GNP.

Problem of more hate

George Washington, the country’s first president, warned in his 1776 farewell address that political parties would lead to jealousy and hate. Political parties, he said, would “tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”

The country didn’t listen.

Hate spreads and makes it hard to control stereotypes about each party.

This makes it harder for communities to find common ground and be civil with each other.

And nowadays, "nobody listens to each other,” said ECU anthropologist Christopher Wolfe. He said that when people aren’t willing to listen to others with differing opinions, they can’t understand each other.

Megan Perry, also an ECU anthropologist, said that people think, “I only need to watch out for myself and not others.” She said that is one root of the problem of how Americans treat and look at each other.

Then there is the partisan divide. The Pew Research Center found that from 1994 to 2022, the trend in holding an unfavorable view of the other party has accelerated. Among Republicans, 21% viewed Democrats as “very unfavorable” in 1994. Nearly 30 years later, 41% felt that way. Democrats went from 17% to 37% in feeling the same about Republicans.

Jackson, the ECU student, as a culprit in mind. The “media propels the hate,” she said.

Annika Schlemmer, an ECU communication major, said “social media is a huge issue,” plus a lot of the hate in America “comes from within.” The online content that users create, see and share is a reflection of stress and anger and personal issues among users.

Public rhetoric and polarization also adds “fuel to the fire” social media sparks off, said ECU MBA student Anderson Ward.

Social media is a cause

Being able to hide behind a screen allows haters to say whatever they want. According to a 2023 study by the Anti-Defamation League, 52% of Americans have experienced harassment on social media.

Social media “allows (people) access to people that think like they do,” said Greenville Mayor P.J. Connelly, which in turn creates plenty of hate to be spread.

ECU sociology professor Kirk Miller said that “the experience of hatred is something we see more of due to the logic of web-based algorithms that feed us content based on negative emotions.”

A 2024 study by the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that up to a third of internet users reported experiencing hate speech on the internet, and users who post hateful or extremist speech may do so because the internet helps spread hate-ideologies.

The GAO also found an association between hate speech on the internet and hate crimes in the physical world.

The FBI reports that hate crimes have doubled nationally in nine years’ time, jumping from 5,600 cases in 2015 to 11,700 in 2024. The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, and gender identity.”

Social media feeds into hate and negativity. People seem to pay the attention to the violence, hatred and negativity on social media, Miller said. Lessening the attention paid to such content is important for healthy interactions on social media, he said.

Education is the solution

Education could be crucial to stopping the spread of hate. Connelly said it’s important for parents and adults in general to teach children to be accepting and willing to listen to others.

Encouraging, listening and acceptance is the goal of a new organization in North Carolina called “Forward,” said Mike Tann, of the local protest group 50501. Tann said the new group “is not about moving right or left. It's about moving forward.”

Tann encourages people to become well-versed in many different topics. Taking general education classes such as critical thinking. That could help broaden one’s perspective and “shape our future leaders,” he said.

Americans could progress by being able to agree to disagree, Ward said. “If extremists were more open to having conversations instead of confrontations, they may be able to find common ground on opinions and even discover they may share some of the same thoughts,” he said.

Mejia, Jones, Barberio and Thompson produced this story for the Fall 2025 course, In-Depth Reporting.