Social Media and Politics

Salutations and greetings to you. Today, we're going to try to put aside some of the worries we're all facing - gas prices, wheat shortage, Russia annexing part of Japan, Florida passing a ridiculous "Don't Say Gay" law, and the general malaise of what's going on in the world to address...social media and politics. Which, unfortunately, doesn't depart from any of those topics. 

Social media and politics are intrinsically linked in many ways. For every cat meme and R-rated cartoon there is a political board, sometimes a legitimate exchange of ideas and sometimes...it's Reddit. (My apologies to Reddit, but not really.) One of my partners is a communist who personally has 4 Reddit accounts designed solely to discuss politics, and to "troll" others - that is, to intentionally inflame conversation with no real purpose or merit. This is common in the darker reaches of the internet, where extremism unfortunately finds a deep seat. These digital echo chambers only further the concepts of the division of the political divide - we psychologically seek to affirm our own thoughts and beliefs. The news we look at, what we talk about, what we believe, and moving further towards extremes in our views are all functions of digital politics. (source) We surround ourselves with what we want to hear, and what we're predisposed to hear. 

People use social media and the internet to research political stances, listen to discourse and form their own opinions, and to compare notes, often used to align political views based on others who share a similar belief (such as the one-issue voters on abortion, for instance. It's common to find voters asking others in their Christian groups which candidate is anti-abortion and paying no attention to a single other policy they support.) Some of this is amazing - the ability to watch either live or recorded speeches that once would have only been available in person, to research candidates and their history, and to process with multiple viewpoints important issues is an advantage that has empowered and mobilized many voters. However, it is also prone to the "echo chamber" mentioned above. Also, the concepts of vulture marketing are easily applied here - for instance, the manipulation of voters by search engine results, (source) or how a joke candidate won the Presidency. [There is a breakdown of how Donald Trump was elected in part because of a popular troll meme, Pepe the Frog. (source)]

The problem with research into social media use and political presence is that it's a self-affirming cycle - the more exposure, the more participation, but those who choose exposure are more than likely those already pre-dispositioned to participation. The study that found a positive correlation (source) between time spent on social media, online social capital, political social media use, political self-efficacy, general social trust (I actually doubt that one) and online political participation. But this study is one that seems to be superfluous - all of those things are different features of someone who prefers to be involved with others on a base level, no matter the spectrum. I would be more interested in a broader study that led to some research on how to elevate political self-efficacy in younger generations.

Today's politics are inextricable from online presences. Everything from the Twitter lives of politicians, influencing elections, primarily online campaigns like Bernie Sanders or Andrew Yang, and the ethical echo chambers of social media bubbles that engender extremism falls under the technology purview, and it's an unstoppable machine at this point that is being slowly harnessed and used.

So, raise your own self-efficacy. Go vote like our pupper here! And inform yourself in empathy and in compassion.

I'll be in tow!