A key part of any politician’s campaign these days is their social media presence, but is social media undermining critical conversations and informed political choices?
“To anybody who thinks this party is tired, to anyone who thinks this party lacks energy, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” The infamous words of Simon ‘The TikTok Taoiseach’ Harris in an attempt to persuade the electorate that Fine Gael would be revitalised under his leadership, and that Harris knew how to connect to the young voters of Ireland.
Harris joined “TicTok” in 2021 and, on his first day, amassed 36.4k followers. His follower count now stands at 122k, and although he still claims that his colleagues in the Dáil mock him for his presence on the app, every political party in Ireland soon followed him. A general election now firmly awaits us on November 29, and as canvassing campaigns begin, it appears that every major politician in the country has been joined not only by the usual media team but also by a social media team.
If social media is replacing long-form content, is this truly a constructive method of connecting to young demographics of voters?
Millennial pauses and bad lip-syncing aside, political sound-bites and the ‘30-second pitch’ have pushed politicians out of the periphery and directly into the spotlight of our social media feeds. You don’t need to have an especially keen interest in politics to encounter their videos - arguably a good thing if it improves our nation’s political literacy or makes politics more accessible. Yet, as politicians continue to push their campaigns, is the type of short-form content that social media mandates undermining critical conversations and informed political choices? If social media is replacing long-form content, is this truly a constructive method of connecting to young demographics of voters?
The recent US election was one of the most aggressively publicised and capricious political events of all time, in no small part due to social media. Each day promised a new viral soundbite that became headline news, possessing the supposed potential to ‘make or break’ a candidate. Kamala Harris fell out of a coconut tree, Trump flipped burgers in McDonalds, Kamala is Brat, and Republicans are just “weird”. Never was the phenomenon more apparent than when comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”, and the viral clips flooded our feeds. The online back and forth which followed saw a Biden gaffe, which effectively called all Trump supporters garbage, and concluded with Donald Trump hauling himself into a garbage truck as he declared, “I love Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico loves me,” in yet another viral moment. Meanwhile, overwhelming rhetoric ensued that Hinchcliffe had - in one viral soundbite - lost the support of Puerto Rican voters for Trump and potentially lost him the election. Obviously, this turned out to be untrue.
The showmanship and scale of the US political landscape is far departed from the corridors of Leinster House - though Michael Healy Rae doing the Charli XCX apple dance and then sharing an AI video of Taylor Swift endorsing him certainly brought us a step closer. Still, it shows how social media can simultaneously overpower and underestimate reality. Did anybody who watched the viral ‘garbage’ clips then think to watch the full version of Hinchcliffe’s speech? Did we watch every other speech given that day at Trump’s rally? Did any of us research the top election concerns of Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania (answer: the economy), or did we believe social media when it told us that this comment had swayed an entire demographic’s vote? Did the Democrats?
I fear that young voters will be most convinced by whichever political party has the biggest budget to spend on ‘boosting’ their content or going on the most popular podcasts (2 Johnnies, I’m looking at you).
We all live in our own echo chambers on social media. Every social media platform has an algorithm that reproduces content for us based on what we have engaged with in the past. If we engage with posts that share a negative view of Trump, then that is what we will continue to see. If we engage with happy, smiley politicians knocking on the doors of happy, smiley families, then that is what we will continue to see. However, that doesn’t mean it will translate at the ballot box, in the dáil, or in policy.
While the Irish general election media frenzy pushes forward, politicians will continue to use social media to declare they will “fix housing”, “fix the economy”, and “make life better”. For the apolitical voter, for the first-time voter, for the ‘family tradition’ voter, I truly fear that seeing a politician on their feed promising to “represent you” enough times is sufficient to gain a casual vote. That is not a comment on the judgement of the young voter, but rather a concern on the sheer mass of content that social media throws at us and the manner in which it can monopolise our feeds. I fear that young voters will be most convinced by whichever political party has the biggest budget to spend on ‘boosting’ their content or going on the most popular podcasts (2 Johnnies, I’m looking at you).
That to appear more personable, more approachable, and more relatable is enough. If someone aligns with the centre-right, then I fear even more that the algorithm is likely to begin to push far-right rhetoric your way. In the un-fact-checked echo chamber of social media, this is simply dangerous.
As a generation of prolific social media users, we must take the initiative to recognise the importance of looking beyond the sound bite.
To truly comprehend our political landscape and the people and issues we vote for and on, we must remove ourselves from the comfort of our own algorithm by reaching more proactively for long-form content and by bringing context back into the conversation. The quick-paced and short-form content that social media favours eliminates space for critical analysis. We lack the big picture, favouring the 30-second synopsis with flashy titles. As a generation of prolific social media users, we must take the initiative to recognise the importance of looking beyond the sound bite.
Don’t let politicians make light of the serious consequences of their policy by fluffing it up with a meme. Frankly, don’t take their happy smiley content at face value - it’s not enough to fix this country. In this election, let social media expose you to who you could vote for, and then research these candidates to determine who you should vote for.
To politicians, yes - posting your campaign videos on social media is realistically the most effective way to reach us, but don’t make a mockery of us. Don’t hop on a TikTok trend and think that you will earn our vote with it. I promise, you will not.