by Jared Sindt
Amidst one of the most polarizing elections in history, social media takes center stager in the campaigns of both presidential candidates.
Social media is one of the largest sources for news and has its influences on politics. Both on a national and local scale, social media influences the minds of people and who they support.
“I use social media every day,” said Micah Wagner, a student at University of Nebraska at Omaha. “I try to watch podcasts and stuff to learn more, but I learn a lot from my Twitter and Instagram.”
Students like Wagner all over Nebraska and the U.S.are influenced by their social media.
The use of social media is ambiguous, said Wendy Townley, a part-time instructor who teaches Media Storytelling in the School of Communication.
“There are definitely positives and negatives when it comes to this election,” Townley said. “I think to help the vote message, it’s been phenomenal. However, are the majority of Americans taking their time to watch the other candidate’s information? I highly doubt it.”
Townley said voters tend to stay in their own lanes with social media and the information we see. Social media companies keep it that way by filtering our information into their databases and showing us the information that we want to see, versus what we need to see.
Townley referenced a Netflix documentary/drama, “The Social Dilemma,”, a documentary that covers the dangers and impact of social networking, with many tech experts calling out their own creations.
The documentary makes claims such as “everything you are doing online is being traced, watched every single action you take is monitored thoroughly.” The documentary compared the use of social media to a drug, working away and filtering the minds of those that use it.
Computers and websites use our information to filter what we might like to see on YouTube, in our advertisements and in our shopping carts. The same happens in our social media news.
Twitter and Facebook filter the political news and genre’s that you would like to see and do not show people the other side, leaving part of the story out.
“I get a lot of Trump and Bacon advertisements on YouTube,” Wagner said, “I think I’ve maybe seen one or two Biden ads’ but it’s rare.” Wagner said he is a Trump supporter and voted for Rep. Don Bacon. R-Neb., as well.
As Townley said this creates even more of a divide when people can’t see the other side to the story.
Fake news is another well-known aspect of social media. Articles that have not been fact checked or contain no validity can get passed around through re-tweets and posts with ease. Twitter has recently been attempting to filter fake news, but some believe this is a violation of their rights.
“I think the idea of that goes against the First Amendment, we should be able to see articles and decide for ourselves if we believe them as fact” Wagner said.
Many share his concern of filtered news, but some believe it is the only way to ensure people are poorly influenced by it.
“The media is the watchdog of the government, and the hope is that media is using the best practices of journalism to fact check,” Townley said, “Facebook is not a media company, Twitter is not a media company, even though they operate as such they’re not.”
Townley also said if Twitter and others like them are beginning to filter such unchecked information, then they are taking steps in the right direction.
This election campaigns are using social media more than ever to support their cause, with free access and ability to reach millions of people. Social media provides campaigns the tools to make people listen regardless if they want to, leaving people to wonder whether the platforms should take responsibility or not.
Townley said she would like to see change starting with a pain access program that could protect her information more.
“I know that it would drive a lot of people away and people wouldn’t use it but what’s the worst in that,” Townley said, “no more anger or rage tweets, or arguments that go on and on? I don’t think that really helps out world right now.”
