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With young people getting most of their news from social media, their political interests are being swayed by algorithms and a limited exposure to diverse perspectives.
In recent years, the number of people for whom social media is their go-to news source has soared, with 44 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds using Instagram for this very reason.
These platforms – originally intended to be for meme-sharing and photo-posting alone – are now overrun with current affairs and political content, which is fostering an interest among users and which they can repost to their stories if, of course, they agree with it.
On the one hand, this is a good thing, especially for those less likely (or with less time) to scour digital publications, find the right (or Left) political podcasts to listen to, or, if they’re feeling particularly antique, thumb through a newspaper.
By choosing ‘don’t limit’ instead of ‘limit’ in Instagram’s settings, you can guarantee that political content is enabled and will show up on your feed, as well as scroll through news that’s trending the highest.
So you can rest easy in the knowledge that you have a better idea of what’s going on now than you did before picking up your phone.
Thanks to the acceleration of our everyday lives in line with the system of telos-oriented capitalist production that we all live under, however, engaging with politics this way is undoubtedly a privilege – and a risky one at that.
This is because, on the other hand, algorithms work by offering you the content that you’re most likely to ‘like,’ which means you’ll probably see the same accounts crop up again and again.
This might feel vindicating, I get it. Personally I would much rather consume feminist analysis than anything from an incel.
But through being presented exclusively the news we want to see, in a manner that’s suitable for fast-paced consumption, most of us aren’t being incentivised to explore our own avenues of knowledge and have our opinions changed.
Take the recent general election in the UK, for example.
Of the Gen Zers I know, most voted Green, which was heavily endorsed through Brat memes. Obviously, many had their (valid) reasons, one being the party’s support for self-identification, ‘so that trans and non-binary people could be legally recognised in their chosen gender through self-declaration.’
