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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Discuss the role of social media in communal polarisation. Suggest ways to combat it.

  • UPSC 2021
  • 20 marks
  • Challenges of Social Transformation

Communal polarisation in India long predates the internet, so social media cannot be its cause. Benedict Anderson (Imagined Communities, 1983) showed that print capitalism let strangers imagine themselves one people; the network does the same for religious communities, faster and far more cheaply. Social media is best read as an accelerant of an existing cleavage,…

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • How the network polarises
  • Accelerant, not origin
  • Ways to combat it
  • Conclusion

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