The Wall_Spring 2023_Issue 9

Olivia Arbour, (she/her), LVI, assesses the extent to which social media is a threat to democracy as we know it There are many conflicting views as to what kind of role social media has to play in politics. Recently, concerns have been raised about social media posing a threat to democracy. In order to evaluate whether social media is a “threat to democracy” it is essential to assess both what the individual threats to the democratic process are and the extent to which they can be attributed democracy are political engagement and informed voting, so in order to evaluate how much of a threat social media poses to democracy, we must examine its impact on these two factors. One threat posed to democracy is political disengagement.This is because the aim of democracy is to have a system of government in which all individuals have some form of participation in the government. If a high proportion of individuals are disengaged with politics, then they will not be actively participating in the governmental process, which in turn undermines democracy. In order to claim that social media poses a threat to democracy via exacerbating political disengagement, two statements need to be proven: firstly, that with the rise of social media political disengagement has increased; and secondly, that this rise in political disengagement is as a direct consequence of social media.Voter turnout in presidential elections in the US ‘trended’ downwards in the period 1965-2012. In 1965 70% of people of all ages cast their vote, compared to 57% of people in 2012. This same pattern can be seen in voters under 25: 50% of eligible voters voted in 1965, compared to 39% of voters in to social media.Two of the most important features of a healthy

2012. In analysing this data, it is evident that social media isn’t the only factor causing political disengagement, as the downward trend in election turnout began before the use of social media was widespread. However, while social media may not be blamed for creating the problem of political disengagement, it may have an important role in sustaining and aggravating it.There are two main reasons why social media may have contributed to the decline in political engagement. Firstly, through prioritisation of content that is likely to impress people, social media may be distracting people from politics. Moreover, the rise of social media has influenced traditional media, pushing them to abandon their civic roles and move closer to the sensationalism that seems to be an inherent part of social media.This causes a rise in disengagement, as comparatively fewer people are being exposed to politics in compounded by the shift in mainstream media.As a consequence of being less exposed to politics, individuals are less likely to vote. Secondly, social media algorithms allow people to become indifferent to democracy. Political disengagement being an unintended consequence of democracy does not prevent it from compounding the problem. It is potentially just an unfortunate consequence of human nature that people would rather watch meaningless videos than political debates, rather than it being the direct fault of social media.The main issue here is not that social media aims to achieve political indifference or causes it, for that matter, but rather that social media algorithms are indifferent to democracy, in that it doesn’t actively promote political their day to day lives, due to the distraction of social media that is

content. Given the growing influence that social media has on democracy, the question is whether this algorithmic indifference is acceptable.

An analysis of all the available

data makes it clear that political disengagement has increased with the rise of social media. However, it cannot be said that this rise in disengagement is solely a consequence of social media because increasing disengagement pre-dates social media. Still, it can still be argued that social media poses a threat to democracy by harming political engagement.This is due to the evidence that illustrates the significant role social media has played in both sustaining and aggravating political disengagement. In order to have a high-functioning democracy, it is also important for citizens to have access to information in order that they can cast an informed vote. Democracy entirely relies on the citizens’ capability and willingness to actively participate in the political process. Citizens are generally assumed to have the capacity to participate but, in reality, effective participation requires citizens to have access to a wide range of information. Access to information is essential to the democratic process, as it allows individuals to form opinions, deliberate, learn about new issues and take political action. On a surface level, it may seem impossible for social media to prevent access to information (the whole purpose of social media is to allow for ease of access to information). But the reality is, despite the illusion of wider access to information, social media contributes to uninformed voting due to personalisation. In order to evaluate the extent that personalisation poses a threat to democracy it is crucial to examine both the ways in which it affects democracy and the extent that it can impact on the democratic process in

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