During the Coronavirus pandemic, social media use has been at an all-time high according to eMarketer’s report on the U.S. Social Media Usage in 2020. Data collected by Socialbakers has shown that 72% of voting-age US citizens are active on social media. Social media has impacted the way people have voted this year in many different ways by help spread information instantaneously and allow politicians to become more accessible.
Due to the pandemic voting campaigns of going door to door encouraging communities to vote was not as feasible as past elections. Although there was a rise of seeing our day to day peers encouraging others to vote as well as celebrities such as the Kardashian family, Taylor Swift, and more had encouraged their followers to make their voices heard.
Social media allows information to be spread within a matter of minutes. This can be helpful in aspects such as spreading awareness to essential dates such as voter registration deadlines, early voting deadlines, polling hours, and much more in regard to the election.
Social media has especially impacted the influence of young voters, according to a poll released by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, 63% of 18 to 29-year-olds said they would "definitely" vote in the election, which is the highest percentage ever in the past 20 years. Although the poll does not mention data on the subject’s influence on social media, in the United States 18 to 29-year-olds make up 90% of 233 million social media users according to Statista.
“I think social media has both helped and hurt the election in my opinion. Social media has been the main source of information for people, but there is also a lot of false information on social media too. It helped spread awareness about many things that I haven’t seen in the media,” Barry University student Gabriella Alvarez said.
Social media CEO’s such as Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg shared during an interview with New Mexico Senator Tom Udall on October 28, 2020, that these platforms continue to see countries such as Russia, China, and more spread false information and influence the election.
“I think social media has made the spread of misinformation more rapid than ever. Lazy people don’t not do their own research makes it worse,” University of Miami student Norwin Alacorn said.
Twitter and Facebook along with other social media platforms have implemented fact-checking systems to try and combat the spread of misinformation. Companies have also created partnerships with one another as well as law enforcement and the intelligence community to identify threats sooner Mark Zuckerberg shared during the interview with Udall.
With the high tension of the election and the high usage of social media, cancel culture has played a large role in society today. Cancel culture is the idea of canceling or running a person, idea, or belief out of public discourse by people who hold opposing views.
“I feel like this election has just brought out the worst in people, in my experience. Even when speaking in a group chat with my best friends I said something completely neutral just encouraging them to do their own research and vote and some people got very nasty with me to encourage people to respect opposing opinions,” Florida International University student Chiara DiFede said.
After conducting the study Social Media and Political Contributions conducted by students Maria Petrova, Ananya Sen, and Pinar Yildirim found that politicians are more accessible to people now more than ever. Although social media can intensify these political races, it is much easier to enter politics with significant use of social media.
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