by Anton Johnson
The consensus among people on social media: we’re sick of social media.
The presidential election, and other elections including the race for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional district between Democrat challenger Kara Eastman and Republican incumbent Don Bacon, have dominated social media for months, leaving many feeling stressed.
“The world is terrible right now, and this semester is terrible and I need it to be over,” said Claire Redinger, a University of Nebraska at Omaha senior.
Redinger is the digital editor for UNO’s student newspaper, The Gateway. She described her attitude towards the social media environment throughout the election as “a little bit of frustration.”
Statistics show 64% of Americans say social media has a “mostly negative effect on the way things are going in this country,” according to a survey conducted in July 2020 by Pew Research Center. Reasons given included misinformation, hate/harassment/extremism and “people believing everything/not knowing what to believe”.
Despite Americans’ distaste for social media, both presidential candidates have spent record numbers on online political advertisements.
President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden have spent over $130 million and $99 million respectively on Facebook ads alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics,
“I’m someone who has always voted,” Redinger said. “I already voted, I knew who I was voting for, so I felt it like it was just taking away from the regular things I go to social media for.”
Many social media users have used the platforms to urge people to vote and provide information about voting. Redinger said ,at this point, that can feel redundant, especially since very few undecided voters remain in this election.
Only 3% of likely voters are undecided about who they will vote for, compared to 11% at the same time in 2016, according to Morning Consult.
Social media platforms like Facebook have made targeted advertising easier, said Adam Tyma, a professor at the UNO School of Communication.
Tyma said every change in communication technology “presents things differently” such as radio allowing for candidates to speak directly to people in their homes.
Cable television and social media have made politics a “fight for the eyes,” Tyma said, with candidates looking for images and moments to go viral.
Tyma said movements like Black Lives Matter or #MeToo wouldn’t exist without Twitter.
Indeed, another survey by the Pew Research Center found 23% adult social media users said “they have changed their views about a political or social issue because of something they saw on social media.”
“Each platform developed around different audiences,” Tyma said. “It’s allowed for the creation of community.”
The increase in political polarization could likely be traced to how social media creates communities. Redinger pointed to the presence of opinion being presented as news as one of her biggest concerns.
Redlinger Facebook users will “read an opinion piece in the New York Times or the Washington Post, and they’re going to be either endorsing it as fact, or upset because they think it’s a fact.”
“You shouldn’t say something is big; you should say that it’s 7 feet tall by 8 feet wide,” Redinger said she had learned in her classes. “What’s big for you might not be big for me.”
Tyma and Redinger both said social media and its issues have become even more prevalent than in the 2016 or 2018 elections, which Tyma said was “not a change, but a preponderance.”
