As the presidential election approaches, the race is ramping up – including on social media. Although Meta reported in 2022 that only about 3% of the content on Facebook is political, Americans have already begun bracing themselves for a deluge of political news stories, ads, AI deepfakes, and arguments on their feeds over the next few weeks.
Elections are stressful, and they tend to exacerbate Americans’ adverse mental health symptoms. For some people, social media can amplify political stressors.
