The Welfare Effects of Social Media
通过随机实验发现，在2018年美国中期选举前停用Facebook四周，减少了在线活动、事实新闻知识和政治极化，但增加了主观幸福感，且停用后对Facebook的估值下降，表明传统指标可能高估消费者剩余。
The rise of social media has provoked both optimism about potential societal benefits and concern about harms such as addiction, depression, and political polarization. In a randomized experiment, we find that deactivating Facebook for the four weeks before the 2018 US midterm election (i) reduced online activity, while increasing offline activities such as watching TV alone and socializing with family and friends; (ii) reduced both factual news knowledge and political polarization; (iii) increased subjective well-being; and post-experiment Facebook use. Deactivation reduced post-experiment valuations of Facebook, suggesting that traditional metrics may overstate consumer surplus.