How Social Media Is Ruining Politics Summary

Bringing Americas Closer Than Ever with Social Media There is a lot of controversy today about social media and the effects on politics, but are we as voters actually getting more knowledge about our political leaders through social media? In an article by Nicholas Carr titled “How Social Media Is Ruining Politics” he clearly states how he believes that social media is having a negative effect on how we view our leaders and others around us. Carr states “We may discover that the gates maintained by our new gatekeepers are narrower than ever,” but are they really (Carr)? Social media is a new advance in technology that is constantly growing around the world and Americans are using it to the full extent to get all the information they could …show more content…
Carr states that “Social media favors the bitty over the meaty, the cutting over the considered” (Carr). Honestly, Carr is correct because people don’t see the facts and the nitty gritty information we need to see. That is due to the lack of information given out through social media and just shows the control they have over what Americans see and hear about the political leaders and how they can easily make people believe what they want Americans to believe. Political information also gets to the public and “can spur civic involvement, even among the disenfranchised and disenchanted” (Carr). This involvement that the public has on social media can really change ones’ point of view over an issues and can cause tension between two people or a whole group of people with different views because they are not getting all the information they need for an argument. Americans try and get involved in everything and they try to place their input on political information without knowing all the true facts. Yes, it is a good thing to see others input on a situation but there’s no use for others input if the title just filters a person’s train of thought. Americans are deprived of these facts because the social media leaders choose what they want us to see and believe and not what we really need to see to make the best decision for this country and the …show more content…
This creates a sense of connection to another individual because it makes a person feel right in the action. As Carr states “Our political discourse is shrinking to fit our smartphone screens” (Carr). Carr is correct about the media fitting in our smartphone screens but this actually can bring a person the information they need although it may be filtered by the social media. For example, Barack Obama posted an Instagram photo talking about his trip to Alaska and how he was going to take part in their lives. When the public sees this they could often feel a connection to him because social media is something they take part in and seeing a political leader doing the same thing that they could do gives them that feeling of connection. Carr talks about how twitter is coming into the political race and he views it as a negative thing (Carr). For people not on this form of social media may have a hard time to connect with politicians. For the others that are on this form of social media then see political information coming to them in a way they have not seen they instantly become drawn to it and feel like they are taking part in