By Dilan Parekh
Not all social media is negative when it comes to politics, according to a communications expert. Platforms such as Instagram and Twitter have become one way for social media users to get positive messages out.
“I think the supreme court decision on Friday, overturning Roe V. Wade is an example of how social media can be used to galvanize like-minded people around the country,” said American University professor Molly O’Rourke, who specializes in political science and political communications.
“I think (the Supreme Court’s decision) really showed the potential for social media to help average citizens really engage and participate in their democracy,” she said.
Protests in Washington D.C as well as other cities around the country were mostly organized and promoted on social media platforms. O’Rourke said that without social media, the protests would have been significantly smaller, or would not have existed at all. While social media plays a powerful role in bringing people together, she said it can be more significant when it comes to politics.
In April of 2022 Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced his plans to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Musk said his end goal for purchasing the platform was to “protect free speech,” which included reinstating former president Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter in January 2021 due to the United States Capitol invasion of Jan. 6. Trump used Twitter to communicate with those who breached the Capitol, however O’Rourke said that she blames people for these riots, rather than social media.
She said it is a complicated situation, but the people who organized these riots simply did not use social media for its correct purposes, which she said is something we must work on in the future.
O’Rourke said she is not against people in power having access to Twitter, however she said that having access to Twitter brings a responsibility of making sure they are factual, civil, and to not demonize others.
President Joe Biden took advantage of his access to Twitter, by sending out a tweet saying “It’s time to turn this pain into action,” following the school shooting in Uvalde, TX in May 2022. The message sparked outrage in the comments, as some people believed Biden should act instead of tweet.
“It depends on how you interpret it but I interpret it as setting the context for what we did end up getting, bipartisan gun legislation,” said O’Rourke, referencing Biden’s tweet. O’Rourke said tweets such as Biden’s tweet are important to inform the public about how certain situations are going to be handled.
O’Rourke said “slacktivism”, the idea of posting on social media but not going any further to take action, isn’t necessarily bad. “Slacktivism” was mainly introduced during the digital movement of blackout Tuesday, in which users posted black squares on Instagram for an entire day to protest Black Lives Matter. This was seen as “slacktivism” by some users, as they felt it was not helping the cause.
“I don’t think we should lay that on social media that (slacktivism) is an inherent problem of those platforms, I think that it offers potential for organizing, for demonstrating, for joining together, and then I think it is ultimately up to people to carry through the next set of actions,” she said.
However, O’Rourke said that if simply posting is the first step into getting involved in political action, she believes it is a positive thing.
O’Rourke said younger people should take gradual steps into using social media and expressing their opinions on social media. She said young people need to be mindful of how much they are exposing themselves on social media platforms.
“I think it is important that we now start educating young people on how to participate on social media, how to identify facts, and how to identify misinformation”. O’Rourke said she believes social media has major potential to become a powerful learning platform for young people in the future to learn about current events and how they can help, but it is up to social media users to make that a reality.