Election News on Social Media: A Blessing or a Curse?

Election talk is everywhere. It’s hard to escape, as millions of Americans grapple with their emotions, opinions, and reflections. Snippets of candidates in emotional moments get millions of views, with every news source seeking more engagement, while politicians’ policies and plans for office are disregarded by many. SHP students, and teenagers in general, get their news from many different sources. However, the main source of election information for many teenagers is social media.
Social media certainly has a bad reputation. It’s often characterized as inaccurate, as it is largely focused on clicks and shock value rather than validity. However, does it deserve its reputation? In some ways, yes. In others, no. While social media certainly can be biased and factually inaccurate, it also can create positive outcomes such as increased political interest and efficacy.
The growth of social media has polarized political news, meaning that sources often take particular positions or lean a certain way to elicit emotional responses in viewers, therefore increasing engagement and creating a loyal viewership. Because of this, sources can present either partially or wholly inaccurate information, as viewers don’t watch sources with a variety of viewpoints. SHP history teacher Ms. Serene Williams attributes the decreased centralization of news sources to Twitter. She said, “I think the change of Twitter changed this a lot… In 2012 or 2016, there was more centralized news through social media and now everything is completely decentralized.” In approximately the last ten years, one of the primary ways Americans, especially teens, have been learning about politics has become much less reliable and fact-based.
Williams continued, saying, “I don’t think students are accessing news in the traditional way that my generation or older generations do. Lots of social media, lots of TikToks, lots of snippets, and lots of echo chambers. I’ve heard a lot of students talk to me about their feed being really in particular to the left or to the right and I’ll mention mainstream stories and they won’t know what I’m talking about.” With the increased polarization of social media, students are exposed to “echo chambers,” in which their own opinions are reinforced and reflected in what they see in social media, and are seldom challenged or even questioned.
However, the growth of social media has caused an increased awareness of fake news and clickbait. As sophomore Caitlin Montgomery explained, when she sees something political on social media, she thinks, “Oh, that could be fake, that could be real, and then I kind of just move on.” Some students take it a step further, such as senior McKinley Palmer, who explained his thought process after seeing something political on social media: “I would check it. If there was a quote, I would find where it was from to make sure it wasn’t skewed. I would make sure I was getting it for what it actually is and not some skewed perspective.” Senior Kate Ragatz has a similar approach: “Whenever I see something on social media it’s not usually what solidifies in my mind as fact, but it gives me ideas of ‘Oh, this happened, let me go look this up.’”
Palmer and Ragatz, along with many other teenagers, recognize how biased and inaccurate social media can be, and ensure that they know the full facts of what they see rather than absorbing what pops up on their feed at face value. For students like them, social media can be a useful tool to inspire them to learn more about political events, policies, and candidates, as seeing a clip from a recent convention or speech can push them to explore sources that are more reliable than their feeds.
Beyond inspiring fact-checking and in-depth research, social media can also be a valuable learning tool when used thoughtfully by creators themselves. Some sources have used social media as an opportunity to educate younger generations in an accessible way. Ms. Williams explained, “I’ve seen a lot of interesting content on Tiktok… My daughter is in high school and she shows it to me all of the time… I think ‘Oh, this is going to be terrible’ but it’s actually quite interesting. I think there’s a lot of value to that, there’s a lot of historians now that are using TikTok to teach and things like that.” Social media allows students to become interested in politics and history, as it can grab their attention and present them with quick information. Learning through short clips and stories, rather than watching news sources or reading entire news articles, is appealing to many teens.
Teens at Sacred Heart have been able to engage in political conversations and grow their understanding of politics through many classes and clubs. Junior Thor Dakin explained, “I’m in AP Gov so we were talking about [the election] a bunch. We were talking about how the electoral college works, and we also predicted every swing state. We also talked a lot about the candidates and personalities, which was interesting this year.” Classes at SHP provide an opportunity for students to contextualize what they’re learning on social media and, in doing so, expand their political knowledge and awareness. Williams explained, “[Students] have done a really great job about leading lunchtime conversations. This year, Hunter and I are offering an extra assignment opportunity to APUSH students for attending. We’ve had like fifty kids come to these lunch discussions.”
SHP students, through classes, clubs, and lunchtime discussions, engage in political conversations that expose them to varying points of view and provide them guidance on how best to approach political news and social media. Sacred Heart also provides students with skills to use social media responsibly, by understanding when fact-checking or sourcing is necessary. Palmer explained, “The main place I got my news was on social media, Instagram, Twitter occasionally, until I wanted to find out more in-depth information, I would go to Google and research stuff. I would try to go to the media bias chart that we learned at Sacred Heart and would try to find unbiased sources because everything’s very skewed nowadays.” Resources such as the media bias chart that SHP provides to students allow students to easily decide if a source is credible and both effectively and factually learn about elections and politics.
The growth of social media and the accessibility of political news has increased interest in politics and belief in political efficacy, or an individual’s ability to influence the government, within younger generations. Williams explained, “On a positive note, I’ve seen a lot of increase of efficacy, a lot of student interest.” As access to political news has become much more widespread through social media, students are becoming more engaged in conversations about candidates, policy, and government functions in general. As an example, many SHP students followed the election on November 5th. While many were busy with sports or schoolwork, they still made sure to follow along as results came out. Dakin “followed [the election] very closely. It was on the news and my family was watching it.” Montgomery’s “whole family watched it when they were eating.” Palmer said, “I had it up on my computer and was tracking the map and what had been won…I wanted to watch but I had homework so I couldn’t.” Ragatz followed the “Associated Press live results,” and was “up until one.” As is seen in their interest in election results, SHP students are engaged in political news and conversations.
The increase in political interest and efficacy can be attributed to the accessibility of political news through social media. While social media is not always reliable and often appeals to certain ideologies, it can also present a useful tool, when used correctly, to engage younger generations in political conversations and educate them about the workings of American democracy.