Author Spotlight
Catherine Erickson
On June 2, I didn’t see any of the summer Instagram posts that typically occupy my feed — lake selfies or a snapshot of someone’s morning brunch. Instead, plain black squares captioned #BlackoutTuesday flooded my feed. Instagram users across the world posted the symbolic square to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, hoping the social media silence would force people to reflect on the history of racial oppression in the U.S.
Ever since “Blackout Tuesday,” reposts of informative Instagram infographics and screens of text expanding on personal experiences and opinions on politics and social movements have become commonplace during my hourly social media scrolls. This activism on social media has expanded beyond just slapping together an Instagram story — it’s led to teenagers being more involved in the climate of our country.
Posts about presidential election issues that divide the candidates such as immigration, police reform and healthcare are constantly on my timeline. Raising awareness about women’s rights, sexual assault, climate change, LGBTQ+ rights and international unrest are all prevalent issues now frequently discussed on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
According to a report by Common Sense Media, nearly 62% of teenagers spend more than four hours a day on screen media. In addition, 60% of teens are inattentive to daily news, according to a report by the Harvard Kennedy School.
Because of this combination of high activity on social media and low awareness of the news, posts about political and social topics help expose users to these issues.
For me, and many of my friends, posts are shared with the intention of educating our peers and keeping friends safe — encouraging youth to vote and sharing coronavirus case stats.
Some believe the use of social media to raise awareness on these issues is excessive and takes over their timeline. But even if users are unable to view all of the information and statistics offered by the posts, it still starts a conversation, as people are constantly confronted with it.
Over the past four months, I engaged in more political conversations with my friends and peers than I had over all 17 years of my life. Although that can partially be attributed to our country’s growing division, both politically and socially, it’s also because I am more exposed to these issues due to the activity on social media.
Not only do colorful infographics and exclamatory tweets expose teenagers to social and political issues, they also often offer informational resources beyond a 240-word limit. Many posts covering the Black Lives Matter movement link petitions to sign and organizations to donate to, allowing users to help beyond just reading the facts on the screen. To emphasize the importance of voting, Instagram added a feature to redirect people to a website for voter registration directly from the app.
I have discovered many resources that I interact with regularly through my friends’ social media posts. Listening to “The Daily” — a 30-minute podcast produced by The New York Times that tackles one prominent news topic every weekday — has become part of my morning routine.
I’ll admit, my weekly screen time reports are embarrassingly high. But seeing my friends promote their own political opinions and social issues they deem important has made me more inclined to educate myself. Social media has exposed me to political opinions from both sides of the aisle, inspiring me to do personal research to form my own opinions on these issues.
It’s common for me to come across Snapchat stories captioned, “If you bring politics to social media, I’m blocking you” or “Politics don’t belong on social media.”
Whether these people were taught to not discuss controversial topics publicly or don’t believe it affects them, they need to move on and educate themselves. Without exposure to these posts, some likely would have ignored or never heard of pertinent issues like the Supreme Court nomination and protests in Nigeria that dominate today’s airwaves.
I understand that the politically-immersed world combined with the social media over-saturation can be exhausting. But the issues being discussed are the issues that will shape our lives both now and as we grow older. Trying to escape and dodge information regarding groups that face daily oppression and a presidential election that will change the course of the next four years is woefully ignorant.
Social media is no longer a sheltered bubble to share the best-edited selfie or to-die-for lunch spread, so stop discouraging people from using their personal accounts to highlight their opinions. Bringing these heavy — and controversial — topics to social media allows people to put good use to their platforms and fosters a generation interested in politics and social change.
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