Breaking news. America is divided. With overwhelming online noise, the news playing in the background and crazy Facebook aunts constantly in our ears, this anxious feeling of division can’t seem to leave our day-to-day lives. But if we look beyond the volume and unrelenting chatter, we might find that we still have much more in common than we think. Take that, haters.
The Simple Truth
Everyone believes our country is divided. People and pundits screaming online, more time spent on phones, less time spent together…its easy to see why so many of us feel that way, but a recent Axios report by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen show where the truth may actually lie.
“It’s a ubiquitous, emphatic, verifiable…lie” –Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Axios
The Simple Truth: Most Americans do not have the time and energy to dedicate as much time to these divisions as we may think. Unsurprisingly, it’s a smaller, but mighty, force of people leading a constant stream of discourse, on our phones and on our TVs. In person, with those we spend the most time with, we are much less likely to feel the divide.
For example, Pew Research Center determined in November that only 21% of U.S. adults have an X account, with only 10% using the app daily. According to the 2025 Gulf South Index by The Ehrhardt Group and Causeway Solutions, these numbers reign true in the Gulf South as well – 22% of Gulf South respondents consider themselves active users of the app.
Compare this to Facebook… While still a breeding ground for misinformation, the social site exists as more community-driven than X and sees much higher daily usage – 79% in the Gulf South and 73% nationally, with Pew maintaining similar rates at 71% of U.S. adults using the app.
We’re in better shape than we think. The divide is not as vast, and while the loudest minority may make us perceive we’ve all gone crazy, the truth is a little different. If there’s one thing we do have in common, its shared anxieties around the impacts of those loud voices – not the actual issues they tout.
The Perception Gap
Something the GSI team has shared before, the larger issue we seem to face is in our perceptions of each other and the world, exacerbated by less time connecting in person and more time connecting with our screens.
More in Common works to understand our country’s divisions while also identifying the forces keeping us together. Their Perception Gap studies just why so many of us have a distorted understanding of the views and lives of others around us. Interestingly, they found the more someone follows the news, the more likely they are to face distorted perceptions of their environment and the people around them. Respondents only consuming media “now and then” were significantly less distorted.
Too Much of a Good Thing: Staying informed is important. Knowing what’s happening in our world, and in our backyards, is undoubtedly essential to a full life and making informed decisions. But there is such thing as too much of a good thing. If we can’t turn off that constant news cycle, we’re bound to be inundated with too much information for us to handle. With all that noise, only the most extreme voices will stand out, widening our divides even more as we fall victim to those telling us everything is bad and everyone is against each other.
How Do We Escape?
That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? If it was as easy as just turning the phone off, we could have solved this ages ago. But they are there for a reason, and they certainly don’t seem to be going anywhere. Instead, we have to find a way through the volume.
From 2013 to 2026, the United States has shifted from 17th to 23rd in the world’s happiness scores, according to Gallup. While at the same time, volunteerism has recovered from record-low levels during the pandemic, with 76% of Americans now saying they gave money in the past year.
Neighborly Behavior: And the U.S. Census Bureau notes over 50% of Americans have helped their neighbors with daily menial tasks in the years since the pandemic, a time often attributed to this growing divide. If we tune out the online noise and step into our real worlds, we find most Americans are willing to help each other and form communities, regardless of the beliefs attributed to us by others (who we often don’t even know).
And at the end of the day…no matter what we believe in and what we engage with online, there is still real connection to be found. No matter what the loudest voices online might lead you to believe, over half the country is still proud to be an American, with 56% and 50% of the Gulf South and national respondents saying they are very proud. We’re still in this together.
So, once you finish reading this email – lock your phone and look outside. Call a friend or a neighbor or a coworker. Limit your media diet to the credible voices you trust providing level-headed information and find ways to contribute to the real communities in front of you. Test what you think you know.
You’ll find we’re a lot less different than others want us to think we are.
Breaking news. America is divided. With overwhelming online noise, the news playing in the background and crazy Facebook aunts constantly in our ears, this anxious feeling of division can’t seem to leave our day-to-day lives. But if we look beyond the volume and unrelenting chatter, we might find that we still have much more in common than we think. Take that, haters.
The Simple Truth
Everyone believes our country is divided. People and pundits screaming online, more time spent on phones, less time spent together…its easy to see why so many of us feel that way, but a recent Axios report by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen show where the truth may actually lie.
“It’s a ubiquitous, emphatic, verifiable…lie” –Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Axios
The Simple Truth: Most Americans do not have the time and energy to dedicate as much time to these divisions as we may think. Unsurprisingly, it’s a smaller, but mighty, force of people leading a constant stream of discourse, on our phones and on our TVs. In person, with those we spend the most time with, we are much less likely to feel the divide.
For example, Pew Research Center determined in November that only 21% of U.S. adults have an X account, with only 10% using the app daily. According to the 2025 Gulf South Index by The Ehrhardt Group and Causeway Solutions, these numbers reign true in the Gulf South as well – 22% of Gulf South respondents consider themselves active users of the app.
Compare this to Facebook… While still a breeding ground for misinformation, the social site exists as more community-driven than X and sees much higher daily usage – 79% in the Gulf South and 73% nationally, with Pew maintaining similar rates at 71% of U.S. adults using the app.
We’re in better shape than we think. The divide is not as vast, and while the loudest minority may make us perceive we’ve all gone crazy, the truth is a little different. If there’s one thing we do have in common, its shared anxieties around the impacts of those loud voices – not the actual issues they tout.
The Perception Gap
Something the GSI team has shared before, the larger issue we seem to face is in our perceptions of each other and the world, exacerbated by less time connecting in person and more time connecting with our screens.
More in Common works to understand our country’s divisions while also identifying the forces keeping us together. Their Perception Gap studies just why so many of us have a distorted understanding of the views and lives of others around us. Interestingly, they found the more someone follows the news, the more likely they are to face distorted perceptions of their environment and the people around them. Respondents only consuming media “now and then” were significantly less distorted.
Too Much of a Good Thing: Staying informed is important. Knowing what’s happening in our world, and in our backyards, is undoubtedly essential to a full life and making informed decisions. But there is such thing as too much of a good thing. If we can’t turn off that constant news cycle, we’re bound to be inundated with too much information for us to handle. With all that noise, only the most extreme voices will stand out, widening our divides even more as we fall victim to those telling us everything is bad and everyone is against each other.
How Do We Escape?
That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? If it was as easy as just turning the phone off, we could have solved this ages ago. But they are there for a reason, and they certainly don’t seem to be going anywhere. Instead, we have to find a way through the volume.
From 2013 to 2026, the United States has shifted from 17th to 23rd in the world’s happiness scores, according to Gallup. While at the same time, volunteerism has recovered from record-low levels during the pandemic, with 76% of Americans now saying they gave money in the past year.
Neighborly Behavior: And the U.S. Census Bureau notes over 50% of Americans have helped their neighbors with daily menial tasks in the years since the pandemic, a time often attributed to this growing divide. If we tune out the online noise and step into our real worlds, we find most Americans are willing to help each other and form communities, regardless of the beliefs attributed to us by others (who we often don’t even know).
And at the end of the day…no matter what we believe in and what we engage with online, there is still real connection to be found. No matter what the loudest voices online might lead you to believe, over half the country is still proud to be an American, with 56% and 50% of the Gulf South and national respondents saying they are very proud. We’re still in this together.
So, once you finish reading this email – lock your phone and look outside. Call a friend or a neighbor or a coworker. Limit your media diet to the credible voices you trust providing level-headed information and find ways to contribute to the real communities in front of you. Test what you think you know.
You’ll find we’re a lot less different than others want us to think we are.
Marc Ehrhardt
President
The Ehrhardt Group