Political Culture vs. Technology: How Technology Influences our Society (12)

 

The culture of politics in our society has been drastically impacted by social media platforms. Continuing technological advancements to social media combined with mass participation from society has pivoted political campaigns into a greater publicity race. The number of politicians that use social media to campaign continues to increase. 

While technology like radio and television jumpstarted digital politics, the addition of social media has catapulted many different threats to society's media and political competence. This influences uneducated and misinformed voting, as well as promoting digital battlefields for hateful comments and conversations.

According to an ERC article, researcher Rachel Gibson states, "... [D]igital technology has evolved from being perceived as a niche tool to becoming an essential component of political campaigns". This continues to be truthful as Gen-Z is becoming more active in the political spectrum. 

Looking back to the 2024 election between the Harris/Walz campaign and the Trump/Vance campaign, TikTok became a powerful tool in their political campaigns. I personally had videos from both Harris and Trump's TikTok pages advocating for their platform, and slandering the other. Using TikTok as a campaign platform connected to first-time Gen-Z voters, further influencing them to vote for their party of choice. 

This use of TikTok will only continue to grow, projected that TikTok continues to be legal in the US, during the 2028 election. TikTok will be a powerful tool to grab the attention of uninformed new voters and secure votes for one party, or the other. 

Social media, like TikTok, has become an increasing hotspot for misinformation and censorship. The widespread and fast communication nature of social media promotes the influence of threats to our judgement, like the Illusory Truth Effect. With repetitive misinformation, our society begins to believe dubious statements and the source it comes from. In an article from Yale Insights, Gizem Ceylan quotes: "It's not that people are lazy or don't want to know the truth. The platform's rewards systems are wrong". 

The truth is these statements lie within the 2021 lawsuit against Facebook and its "deceptive practices". According to this lawsuit, Facebook was guilty of misinformation regarding vaccines, 2020 election information, and censorship. This isn't the first time Facebook would be accused of deception, and Zuckerberg has faced continuous lawsuits over the years. 

Removing bias is almost impossible from any news report. Ultimately, some kind of bias will peek through. As social media becomes increasingly more "useful" in political campaigns, it is important we as a society take ownership of our own education. 

The first step in de-influencing the spread of misinformation is to simply stop sharing it. While yes, it is important we share our ideas, we must look more carefully at what we are sharing. Instead of seeing a headline that agrees, or disagrees, with your initial opinion and reposting, take a quick look over what you are sharing. Cross referencing information with other sources is also a great way to check legitimacy. 

When I research news headlines, I check out at least three to four different sources and cross reference them to each other. Additionally, I choose sources that report mostly politically independent in order to reduce any bias in reporting and within myself. 

The government is in charge of making rules that influence our day-to-day lives, party-line voting and misinformation can become detrimental to our individual rights. Our society is continuously growing more and more uneducated due to censorship of certain ideas (i.e. Antiwar) and harmful misinformation (i.e. Immigration). If this pattern continues, our government will ultimately have more control over us and our personal privacy. 

Due to the popularity and importance of social media in our day-to-day lives, it would be unexpected for campaigns to move strictly to social media; however, this influence affects the overall competence and understanding of political culture, especially for new voters. 

The following video discusses the role of social media in politics: