Social media has and always will be political; with party accounts surging, it’s important to critically assess the content we are consuming. Whether it be an edit or video of a speech, it influences our opinions on where you may end up casting your vote.
Politicians evolving and showing they value the opinion of younger generations by joining these platforms is increasingly positive, if used correctly. Young people seeing these accounts may be urged to educate themselves and vote. Posts where they engage with their policies and improving quality of life instead of slandering opposition do this even better. The voter turnout for young adults is abysmal, whilst memes may not present their policies, it also introduces people to the world of politics. However, many of the underhand legislators take advantage of algorithms to spin narratives.
Such as Nigel Farage’s attempts at humour in his cameos; he expands his ill-gained wealth and invites impressionable young men to vote in his favour. With the belief he is amusing rather than reading his stance on how the country should be run, they support him, building his fanbase which begins to amass more men that are stuck in the follower mentality.
Similarly, this was seen in Boris Johnson’s exploits on ziplines and football. Whilst he wasn’t connected in the sense of posting them himself, these videos swayed public opinion. He appears as a goofy politician, humanising him to some, allowing them to forget his indiscretions such as ‘Partygate’ during lockdown.
Edits of politicians are an incredibly successful strategy in subtly persuading support or disapproval. Whilst often made by someone disconnected from the party, they are unknowingly strengthening their own opinions and others. The brain can be remarkably susceptible to information campaigns, especially when it’s not perceived as political promotion.
Whilst social media does grab the attention of the younger generation it can form a false sense of how a vote may go. The support for Kamala Harris was rife back in 2024, with many convinced she would best her opposition, but social media algorithms create echo chambers. Being shown videos that solely align with your opinions exhibits a false sense of how the rest of the country feels.
Equally in recent council elections here in the UK, the green party was said to perform highly. Whilst they smashed their previous voting records, they were not a major party. Social media support isn’t always reflective of how the vote will go as the advocates may be not eligible to vote or are in some cases ‘bots’.
Another impactful example of this is the Democratic and Republican parties on platforms such as TikTok in the United States of America. Both engage in pointing out their oppositions flaws, with some being valid, such as highlighting the recent sexual violence scandals of republican governors, but neither solely focus on what their own policies are. Whilst these accounts help to exhibit their overall morals, it gives both sides (although Republicans are more obvious with their distaste) mindless fuel to argue at each other rather than ideas of what they’d be voting for.
Memes and edits of politicians trivialise real world issues and gives those with the most privilege a reason to disengage from actual discourse. They do help to bring in new voting groups but it’s so difficult in today’s climate to decide if they’re voting for what they believe in or for what they have been shown.