The Ultimate Question
Fleming (2024) raises one of the most important questions of our decade: "Should we keep politics out of social media?"
This question stems from foundational research that highlights how nefarious social media's platforms are in stimulating forums of misinformation. Social media is ultimately breeding inflammatory content and is a key player in mixing incorrect narratives into people's political landscapes, and its efforts are "all to encourage people to post more, create more content and to keep making money out of people’s data" (Fleming, 2024). People are arguing that since algorithms and codes favoring political actors are embedded in people's social media feeds, should people just keep their political opinions out of social media? Even when people do share their opinions on recent political events, harassment and bullying remain prominent, as divisions and ostracizing people who share different political beliefs is rampant on social media. Even when people refrain from sharing their political opinions, they can also fall into this negative treatment, as they somehow either don't care about the issue or are "concealing or are in denial about [their] own prejudices" (Fleming, 2024). It has become difficult to simply exist as a neutral player in this digital environment, where people can objectively learn about what is happening and choose whether or not to comment on certain matters.
It seems like there is a fair amount of disadvantages to social media and its role in politics. It's disheartening at the end of the day. It is undeniable that social media is influential and a great way for people to be exposed to recent and important issues happening throughout the world, but it is a hard pill to swallow that algorithms and social media figureheads are feeding a political spiral. We should all be aware of the role we are playing in this game and advocate for ourselves so that objective media can remain supreme and be held to upmost importance during this rocky period.
Fleming, A. (2024). The big idea: Should we keep politics out of social media? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/jan/22/the-big-idea-should-we-keep-politics-out-of-social-media
Social media algorithms definitely can be problematic when it comes into the discussion of politics. However, I don't think there will come a time where politics can be removed or kept off of social media. People like sharing their lives, and who they are, which involves what they think and what/who they support. With this, society is very judgmental, if your posts falls on the "wrong side" of whatever social media app your using, the more likely you will face these judgmental comments online. I think the key is more so the way algorithms work, not what is or isn't discussed on these apps.
ReplyDeleteI see you point as especially relevant because of the was in Gaza. People that have chosen to side with Israel or not choose a side at all have been utterly slammed in the media. Another phrase people like to throw out there is "tone deaf" if you choose to not engage in social media activism. I agree with Sydni that politics cannot be kept away from social media, nor should it be. For one, the more people posting about social media, the more data to be collected, but also, social media is the best medium for activism and mobilizing people.
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