Influence of Social Networks on Democracy

I was browsing for an article when I came across the one linked in the title. To be honest, I am not really all that familiar with the source (legitimacy) of the article, but the reasoning is something that I can follow.

Though brief, it does hint at a topic that I discussed with Martin and Inga a few weeks ago: the possibility for people to seek and "educate" themselves with only that information which reinforces their existing viewpoint. This, in my opinion, can have strong implications for politics, in particular, on how people align themselves in an environment which can arguably be described as increasingly hostile. The article focuses on comments made by David Weinberger (researcher at Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society), who notes that social networks today are likely to supply you with input and information from those who think most like you. The take away message from the article being that social networks may be increasingly isolating us from differing opinions, allowing us to potentially reinforce our positions through back-pats and high-fives without having to vet it through conditions present in the past.

While reading through the article, I couldn't help but think of a website that I stumbled upon several months ago (http://www.americanselect.org, a website with the stated desire of providing a third party ticket). Could this be a social network that allows us to engage in productive discussions, or will it end up being an alcove for link-minded individuals? Either way, for me it is an interesting example of how social networks are being used in the political arena.