The recent shooting in Las Vegas left about 500 injured and 58 dead — a tragedy that should’ve prompted Americans to unite as a nation. But instead of creating a movement to commemorate those lost in this tragedy, many on Twitter had the impulse to politicize the incident.

Attacks on the NRA and calls for gun control popped up almost immediately on Twitter. Analytics show that #guncontrol peaked the day after the shooting, when about 100 unique tweets using the hashtag were exposed to about 200,000 users per hour.

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Looking at this trending hashtag, you’d think everyone on Twitter supports gun control. Finding an alternative opinion requires much more digging. The structure of social media minimizes opportunities to hear alternative political viewpoints, and given Twitter’s young audience, that’s especially true when it comes to liberal issues.

Using social media for political activism is just as valid as promoting a business or brand. Social movements such as the Nasty Women’s March and the notable Black Lives Matter started as social media phenomena.

Once a user follows a social group, their network of politically like-minded individuals grows, and their timelines become full of content they’ve chosen to see. Many frequent consumers of social media may not be exposed to opposing views or know that they’re as prevalent as they are in reality.

Twitter’s algorithm also plays a role in creating the content bubble we live in by prioritizing content that reflects a user’s interests. The algorithm analyzes the user’s activity — including likes, shares, retweets and searches — to understand the content the user would be interested in consuming. So to speak, users who often read The Huffington Post would not be exposed to Breitbart.

But content feeds aren’t just determined by conscious choices. Our online behavior is turned into data that’s used for marketing and advertising, said Makana Chock, an associate professor of communications in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“Social media sites and search engines are supported by advertising,” Chock said. “One of the things that we accept in the ‘terms of agreement’ is that they can use our data to personalize things such as ads, messages and news. All of this information that shows up on our feed has been personalized to what the underlying algorithm says we’re interested in.”

With Twitter’s millennial audience, the content it promotes through algorithms tends to lean liberal.

Millennials are also more likely to be socially liberal Democrats than conservative Republicans, according to the Pew Research Center. This explains the domination of Huffington Post retweets and BuzzFeed videos that appeal to social media’s liberal base.

While appearing to be a social justice warrior may seem cool to your woke, vegan, hippie liberal counterparts, developing an informed opinion requires more research and effort. Unfortunately, social media acts as an echo chamber that amplifies bias and even false narratives.

Don’t be discouraged to click on a link or video from one of your few friends who are on the opposite end of the political spectrum. Getting exposure to actual facts and reasoning will show you countering viewpoints don’t always stem from bias, ignorance or bigotry.
Joshua Nelson is a senior political science major. He can be reached at jqnelson@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @joshqnelson.

Published on October 10, 2017 at 11:35 pm