Social media plays a huge role in today’s society. Within the past decade, social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Tiktok, and more have gained massive popularity. Social media has been around for roughly twenty years, and within those last few years, politics and social media have had an enmeshed relationship.

During former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, he turned to Twitter. Humans are influenced daily by social media down to how we act, what we like, and what we wear.

Currently, social media is the most direct form of communication between voters and politicians. More people look at their phones than watch TV or read the newspaper leaving social media to be a positive avenue of publicity.

However, there can also be a dark side to social media and its consequences regarding politics.

Social media has a bad connotation within politics as shown when former President Donald Trump was banned by META in 2021. Although Trump is set to be reinstated soon, it goes to show how influential social media can be. The January 6 insurrection at the Capital was largely organized by social media and by President Trump himself. Social Media can be weaponized and is very harmful with how much information can be spread to millions of people within seconds.

Social Media can be a very convenient thing but also a very scary place. The amount of influence that it carries throughout modern society can be very dangerous and harmful.

Social Media and politics are not all bad though; it also allows people like President Biden and many United States Supreme Court members to positively interact with millions of people through many social media platforms.

President Biden definitely has a major Twitter following, where he has positively connected with millions of his followers and allows the common citizen to see President Biden as more than just a President, but as a human who uses social media just like the rest of us.

Overall social media can have a very positive impact on society as well as a negative impact. We cannot take everything on social media for what it is and we should be researching before jumping to conclusions. We are all humans after all and not everything said on social media is truly what it means.