Wild Card Paper

 Mackenzy Turner

MM 3133 - Spring 2020

Professor Reppert 

19 November 2020

Social Media's Effect on the Election

Social media has morphed into a normalcy as an outlet of communication and entertainment for Americans. Common school kids and celebrities alike posting, liking, and tweeting for hours and days on end. With this newfound trend in society the world is catching on and everyone is taking advantage of these platforms, even politicians. Throughout the election our feeds have been flooded with voter registration info, who to vote for, and social movements that have sparked across the nation. While we may just scroll past these and pay them no mind, or give them a simple like, how do they affect our stance on the election. Can what we see that our social media feeds affect who we vote for and why?

            With an estimated 244 million people in the United States using social media, the use of these platforms is going to make somewhat of an impact no matter what you are saying, it is going to reach someone. When you bring up a touchy subject, or one that is prevalent at the time, such as a presidential election, people are going to listen. However, people are gullible and are often willing to just accept what they read as the truth and not do any further research to form their own opinions. In fact, a "new study from the Stanford History Education Group shows that 2020's first-time voters often struggle to sort fact from fiction despite their technical prowess on smartphones and social media." The demographic that you would most expect to have social media under their belt, is the most susceptible to misinformation or ideal changes about the election.

    The inability to decipher this misinformation could have a major impact on the outcome of an election. Due to the global pandemic, things look vastly different this year in terms of campaigning. Candidates are not out shaking hands or knocking on doors, they have to take a safe, more socially distanced approach. This brings many of them to social media platforms to spread their message. However, candidates are not the only ones using these sites, anyone can. Anyone can say anything, and with the inability or simply lack of motivation to fact check, people will believe what they read on these accounts. With the overwhelming number of fake or suspicious accounts spitting out misinformation about the pandemic and the election, the social media platforms had to fight back. 

    Facebook and Twitter acted fast this year-round election time. In fact, Facebook "introduced a feature last year that tries to limit the spread of websites that are disproportionately popular on the platform, compared to the broader Web." They also spoke to their partnerships with fact-checkers, attempting to eliminate false or misleading content regarding the pandemic or the election. Twitter has taken a similar approach to handling their flow of misinformation. They have implemented a system where they place a fact check label on tweets. Their first label was found on a tweet made by the president of the United States regarding the election, a small red icon stating "get the facts about mail-in ballots" was tagged on the bottom.

    With these efforts, Facebook and Twitter have made great strides towards keeping misinformation off our feeds. However, the ultimate test is the users ability to fact check for themselves. With the ability to post what you wish and read what you please, you are also granted the power to believe what you want to believe. This has the biggest affect on the election, the ability for misleading information to be takin as law. The education system and social media's influence "arm students with the information to learn about democracy and navigate one of [the] most important civic duties." It is important to realize that social media is so influential on the younger and more influential demographic. It just comes down to society's ability to interpret the misinformation that cloud their social media feeds. This is easier said than done as "social media platforms are inherently addicting, [author] Pomerantsev says, so he argues that people can't be blamed for not quitting those platforms cold turkey despite what they may be doing to the structure of democracy."

    Throughout the years, what the world sees on their social media platforms affects how we dress, talk, and what music we listen to. As we become more susceptible to the media, politicians have taken advantage of these platforms to share their ideals. Especially in an election year what you see in your social feeds can effect how you may vote in an election. These media platforms are working diligently to reduce and remove misleading and false content from our feeds by deleting fake accounts and labeling blatant misinformation. While they are doing what they can, it is still up to the public to fact check themselves and be diligent in their research. Misinformation taken as the truth can change the face of an election.