As libraries continue exploring ways to weave online social media into their core service, a Pew study suggests popular Internet gathering spots such as Facebook and Twitter are not effective places for generating meaningful or honest conversation about significant news events. Not only are people not more willing to discuss controversial issues online than they are in person, in fact the reverse is true. These findings by the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC, did not come as much of a surprise to a handful of library officials interviewed by Library Journal after being shown the report. “I don’t see social media platforms as the place for meaningful dialogue on important issues,” Julie Brand Acteson, interim director of the King County (Washington) Library System (KCLS), said. Pew Research is a self-described nonpartisan “fact tank” that conducts public polling on a variety of social and demographic issues. In August, it released a report called “Social Media and the ‘Spiral of Silence.’” The research endeavored to put a digital-age spin on a widely accepted theory of human behavior: that people will not speak their minds about controversial issues of the day in public settings—or even privately among family, friends, or work colleagues—when they believe those opinions are not in the majority. First introduced in 1974, this theory is known as “the spiral of silence.” Pew Research tested the assumption that social media provides an online antidote to the spiral of silence. Some 1,801 adults were surveyed with the focus on a recent national news-making event: Edward Snowden’s revelation in 2013 of massive U.S. government surveillance of domestic email and phone records. The survey sought opinions about the Snowden leaks and measured respondents’ willingness to discuss this nationally important story, either in person or via the Internet. The conclusions were quite clear. Pew Research found that in the Snowden case, social media did not emerge as a new forum for those who otherwise preferred to remain silent rather than expressing opinions or debating the topic. If people thought their friends and followers on social media disagreed with them, they were even less likely to state these views openly, even online. In fact, people were much less willing to discuss the Snowden-NSA story in social media than they were in person: 86% were willing to have an in-person conversation about the surveillance program, but just 42% of Facebook and Twitter users were willing to post about it on those platforms. Facebook and Twitter users were also less likely to share their opinions in many face-to-face settings: the average Facebook user was half as likely as other people to say he or she would be willing to voice an opinion with friends at a restaurant. People were more willing to share their views if they thought their audience agreed with them, in both personal and online settings. Thinking their online Facebook network agreed with them even made them more willing to speak out in a face-to-face discussion with friends, though they were still only 0.74 times as likely to voice their opinion as non-Facebook users. “I thought it was an interesting study,” Courtney Young, the American Library Association president, told LJ. She called the results “useful to libraries,” but said it remained very difficult to predict how useful social media would prove for libraries in the future. “We’re all using information in a very different way than we did even 10 years ago,” she said. Added Young, “It’s a continuation of our mission. Libraries have always had a role in providing public discussions. Libraries are vital in connecting people to the information they need.” This is particularly true because the study found respondents were more willing to share their views if they felt they knew a lot about the issues, or had strong feelings or a high level of interest in the topic. Increasing such knowledge, and therefore confidence to engage in such discussions, could be a natural extension of the library’s role. Toby Greenwalt, director of digital strategy and technology integration at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, said he was “not particularly” surprised at Pew Research’s results on the spiral of silence. Greenwalt spoke of social media’s “dual nature.” On one side, he said, Twitter and Facebook users consider the sites a “safe space for people to have candid conversations.” Yet there is a darker flip side, Greenwalt cautioned, where participants can get “a sense of being under a magnifying glass” where comments can sometimes be “used against you.” In that sense, a trepidation toward openly expressing opinions can be understandable. “Tone does not carry over well in plain text,” Greenwalt said. Greenwalt would like to see libraries refocus their social media efforts to “pull” people into the library, finding a way to use it as a “service desk, making it organic to the day-to-day service” rather than “pushing” information about programs or events. As to providing an online forum for constructive discussion of controversial issues,“Curating a conversation is full-time job,” Greenwalt said. “Most libraries don’t have the capacity to support something like that.... We do have a role in facilitating healthy discourse. It’s a matter of how far we want to push it.” One library taking an active role in facilitating such discourse is KCLS. In the state of Washington, KCLS (which boasts 49 branches serving a region of about two million people, including Seattle) has been using its Convey initiative to promote civic engagement in a variety of forms, including online and in-person conversations. Since Convey started in 2012, it has hosted a variety of conversations on a mix of topics in partnership with different organizations and community groups. A host of cities within King County have been involved. Convey’s most recent project focused on the issue of hunger. “Tell us how to end hunger in your community,” was the simple question inviting online dialog. “Libraries have a role in creating the best possible decision making and are perfectly positioned to be part of civic issues that stir interest and potentially conflicting views,” Acteson told LJ. But Convey does not use Twitter or Facebook as a platform. Acteson said KCLS primarily “uses popular social media to offer welcoming and inviting spaces where patrons will find useful and entertaining information, to extend library services in new mediums, and to facilitate exchanges on library-related subjects.”