Roberts, Jessica2026-04-222026-04-222026-04-18900e22af-cdc5-4444-80ba-5dbb82f33645http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/57554At a critical moment in history, the Hutchins Commission (1947) was convened to assess the role of the free press in a democratic society, articulating the social responsibility theory of the press. Nearly 80 years later, social media have become a part of everyday life for people around the world. More people than ever can now create, disseminate, analyze, and filter information to reach a broad public, with huge consequences for public information, but little attention to the role users play in shaping information on social media and the responsibility that comes with it. This study examines what the affordances of social media platforms, such as “frictionless” design and endless scroll, communicate to users about their roles and responsibilities, focusing on two of the most popular platforms, Instagram and Facebook. Role theory is used as a framework to understand how users might interpret their roles and responsibilities, as communicated by the platforms’ affordances. The social responsibility theory of the press is applied to understand how we might reconsider the responsibilities of social media users in democratic societies, focusing on the role users play in shaping the information others see and how they might be made more aware of that role.engSocial mediaRole theoryUser experienceAffordancesSocial responsibility theoryresearch article10.1080/27671127.2026.2659619