.split seemingly gets ignored

[liquidsnake]

Hi, can you guys see why the .split method is being ignored?

from openpyxl import load_workbook

fb_user_data = load_workbook(filename = './spreadsheets/user_data.xlsx')

# Cell K2: first second third fourth
test_list = fb_user_data['users']['K2'].value
test_list.split()
print(test_list)
print(type(test_list))

Output:
first second third fourth
<class 'str'>

Process finished with exit code 0

I also tried removing the spaces and using commaas instead. Then I used "," in split. It did not change anything.