How I feel about politics in an era dictated by social media

Social media has become an integral part of most people’s lives. I, for one, find myself doomscrolling much more than I should and it is hard to ingore the way social media has become a driving force to portray politics and current affairs. I think there has always been a relationship between politics and social media has evolved in recent years.

The use of social media within politics has been significant, in my opinion, as a platform to present political debates, sharing ideologies and portraying global affairs. The use of algorithms to tailor individuals' content based on their preferences can create effects in the audience which ultimately can influence how some people vote. This is what I find scary about the use of social media when it comes to politics.  Through these algorithms, “echo chambers” frequently occur and this is when an individual is exposed to the same opinions and ideologies, creating this tunnel vision on political standpoints as they lack diversity in their content. Because of this, I find that it is harder to reach an agreement on current affairs because the viewer is only shown what they want to see and thus, become excluded from different outlooks.

As social media platforms are focused on keeping viewers attention, content is often presented in 15-second videos which can be oversimplified and as a result limits the audience's understanding of the true impact of events. These short, digestible forms of content do not completely educate the viewer and rarely provide the audience with the knowledge of an event, just certain perspectives.

On the flip side of this though, I do think it is necessary to make use of social media when it comes to politics as it is growing day by day and becoming such a thing that the public could not live without. There are many educational platforms which I stay up to date with, and I like to see how politicians themselves are using social media in creative ways, especially in election periods.

Yet I think it is crucial that the viewer stays informed and gains political knowledge beyond social media. It is important to not get stuck into these “echo chambers” and expose yourself to a variety of opinions and knowledgeable sources. It is pivotal that people have the awareness that what they are being shown is to captures viewers' attention and is not a completely informative piece of media.

As a whole, I find the rise of politics in social media quite frightening due to the amount of extreme opinions being portrayed. However, I believe it is something that is only going to keep growing. Although, I encourage people to stay informed externally to social media platforms, I appreciate that there are some great platforms and uses of politics online.