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Social media platforms have become such a huge part of our lives that it's hard to imagine the modern world without them. We use them to catch up with friends, share photos, follow celebrities, watch funny videos, and, of course, lose track of time while scrolling for “just five more minutes.” And sometimes, especially when it comes to memes like the ones in today’s post, that endless scrolling is exactly what we're looking for—a quick laugh and a little break from everything else. But social media is about much more than entertainment.
It's also where people discuss much bigger things, including politics, current events, elections, and social issues, turning our feeds into a constant mix of jokes, opinions, news, and conversations about what's happening in the world. As Forbes notes, around 5.79 billion people now use social media worldwide, meaning more than two-thirds of the global population is connected through these platforms. Let that number sink in for a second. With billions of people able to share an opinion at the tap of a screen, social media has become one of the most powerful spaces for public conversation.
Of course, with so much information moving through social media every second, not everything we see is accurate. And that can become particularly concerning when the topic is politics. Sinan Aral, an MIT professor known for his data-driven research into how social media platforms shape society and political realities, has explored this issue extensively.
In his book, The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health—and How We Must Adapt, he highlights research showing that false political news can spread six times faster on social media than the truth. It can also travel significantly farther and deeper into social networks. That's a pretty alarming thought when you consider how quickly people can like, repost, and share something without checking where it came from. A dramatic headline can travel around the world long before anyone stops to ask whether it was actually true.
This matters even more because younger adults, in particular, often turn to social media for campaign updates, political news, and information about the world around them. A UK survey found that 58% of people under the age of 35 primarily use social media to access political news. Meanwhile, research from the Pew Research Center found that 42% of social media users in the United States say these platforms are important for their involvement with political and social issues. For many people, scrolling through a social media feed has become part of the way they stay informed.
Interestingly, though, being interested in political news online doesn't necessarily mean everyone is constantly posting their own opinions. A separate U.S. study found that only around one-third of social media users said they often or sometimes comment on, discuss, or post about government and politics. More specifically, 9% said they often did this, while 23% said they sometimes did. Meanwhile, a much larger group preferred to stay relatively quiet. Nearly seven in ten users said they hardly ever (30%) or never (38%) discuss government or politics on social media.
Another Pew Research Center analysis gives us an even clearer picture of how political conversation is distributed online. The Center examined tweets posted by U.S. adults with public accounts between June 2018 and June 2019 and found that just 13% of all tweets mentioned national politics. Even more interestingly, only 6% of these users were classified as “prolific political tweeters.”
To fall into that category, they had to post at least 10 tweets during the period, with at least a quarter of those tweets focusing on national politics. So while political posts can sometimes feel impossible to escape online, they don't necessarily represent what everyone is talking about. A relatively small group of highly active users can create a huge amount of political content. This is a useful reminder that the loudest voices in your feed aren't always representative of everyone else's views.
There are also plenty of ways to participate in political and social conversations online without writing a long opinion post or jumping into a heated argument. People can share articles, use hashtags, change their profile pictures, repost information, or show support for causes that matter to them. And these behaviors can shift depending on what is happening in the world at a particular moment.
For example, in a June 2020 survey, conducted following global protests against racial injustice, around 18% of social media users said they had used a related hashtag in the previous month. Meanwhile, roughly 36% said they had posted a picture to show support for a cause. These numbers show that online engagement can take many different forms. For some, activism means speaking loudly and regularly. For others, it might mean sharing one important post, supporting an organization, or quietly learning more about an issue.
