Don't Believe Everything You Read... On Facebook

Like it or not, social media has become a part of every day life. More and more, Facebook and Twitter are supplanting face-to-face social interactions. With so many people constantly connected and information so readily available, it is only natural that people have begun to use these media for more than just superficial social interaction. For the first time in 2008, with the campaign of Barack Obama, we saw the effect social media could have in the political arena. With people constantly connected and sharing instantaneous information, the ability to disseminate ideas and galvanize support—both generally and monetarily—has immensely changed. These changes have cut both ways. I would argue that the democratization and viral capability of information through social media has done much more harm than good.
While people are no longer reliant on a few media sources to get their political information, the quality of their information has decreased. On the Internet and on social media sites, it can be very difficult to distinguish between what is credible and what is not. Furthermore, social media practically demands a simplistic, abbreviated way of disseminating information. Twitter limits each tweet to 180 characters or less. Facebook statuses are even shorter. Increasingly, the norm is for people to quickly scroll through their Facebook or twitter feeds and move on to another site. This means that the political information people consume is limited to short buzzwords and captions. In politics, ideas are often complex and nuanced. On twitter, things are usually simplified and sensationalist. Certain political ideas simply cannot be boiled down to a single hash tag. And this is what is scary about the idea that young people could be receiving a majority of their political information from social media. First of all, what their friends post already restricts the information they are receiving. Secondly, it has become common practice to read the status accompanying a video clip or watch the first few seconds rather than watching the entire video and understanding its political context.
For example, Cornell in Washington resident, Tom March, posted a video of an exchange between Congressman Ron Paul and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when Bernanke was testifying in front of the congressional committee Congressman Paul sits on. Tom posted the video on his Facebook, insinuating that Ron Paul made Bernanke look stupid when discussing the gold standard. And this is what 90% of Tom’s Facebook friends took away from seeing this video without actually watching it in its entirety. In reality, it was clear from watching the video that what Ron Paul thinks he knows about economics does not even approach what Bernanke actually knows as Bernanke seemed exasperated with Paul’s uninformed questions. Through social media, it has become very easy to intentionally, or merely incidentally, spread misinformation and disinformation. If successful democracy is born out of informed citizens, the proposition that future generations will get most of their news from social media is a frightening one.