This POV that equates following someone on social media with endorsing and agreeing with everything they say - and being "friends" and "identifying with" them - is so juvenile.

I follow lots of people on social media I agree with on some things, and disagree with on others. I also follow quite a few people whose views I find largely reprehensible - because I want to see what "the other side" is thinking and saying. How can I argue against their views if I'm not thoroughly familiar with what their views and arguments are?

When I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, people of all political stripes believed that to be fully informed it's crucial to take in viewpoints all across the political spectrum. And that's it's good for everyone to regularly challenge one's own beliefs, and to learn to argue from - and against - the POVs of various sides.

It's analogous to why we need exposure to dirt and germs in order to develop adaptive immunity: humans only form antibodies to, and can mount viable physiologic defenses against, pathogens to which we have come in intimate contact with.