How Do Social Networking Sites Influence U.S. Civic Engagement?

Credit: Julie Carle, Bowling Green State University News

Most social networking site users from the United States do not log on to popular digital communication platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to immerse themselves in news that informs the public about political and social issues affecting the lives of Americans. The majority of these social networking site users harness digital communication platforms for entertainment. So why does research show that social networking sites influence more than half of political and apolitical American users to become civically engaged on and offline?

The simplest answer is that social networking site users unintentionally engage in content about political or social events that affect them or those they care about. Consequently, users become motivated to participate in civic engagement temporarily or consistently on social networking sites or in person. Although the simplistic answer conveys why users become involved in civic engagement on and offline, it is essential to thoroughly examine the main causes behind the phenomenon. This examination allows the public to understand the immense impact that social networking sites have on the U.S. political and social sphere.

Entertainment is one of the main reasons users unintentionally engage in content about political or social events. This cause may be unsurprising considering, as mentioned earlier, that most users are on social networking sites because they want to be entertained. Therefore, it is inevitable for users to eventually consume content about political or social issues when seeking entertainment online. What is surprising, however, is that users, specifically those that are apolitical, actively seek entertaining content that blatantly encourages civic engagement in a creative manner.

Although politically entertaining content on social networking sites creatively informs the public about political and social events to mobilize them to participate in civic engagement, apolitical users only engage in this content because they find it humorous. Therefore, the knowledge that apolitical users obtain when consuming political entertainment is an accidental benefit that some acknowledge and employ.

For instance, apolitical users from the United States that watched the politically satiric show, “Last Week Tonight,” during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, were among the donors who helped the program’s host, John Oliver, raise funds to combat political and social issues that were affecting countries around the world. Similarly, in “The Daily Show,” host Trevor Noah also used political satire as a tactic to encourage online viewers to become civically engaged through political or social actions such as voting, protesting, signing a petition or donating to an important cause during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljO5VT3_ARY

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Social networks are another main reason online users consume political or social content without intention. Despite common belief, most online users have complex social networks. In other words, some of the accounts that online users follow on social networking sites do not have the same political ideology, social values or entertainment interests. As a result, online users are usually exposed to diverse content that they would not seek on their own for consumption.

For example, an apolitical Twitter user is following a real-life friend on the social networking site who is interested in politics. The friend retweets a thread that a New York Times journalist wrote about how social networking sites often exploit their users by leveraging their private data for advertising revenue. The apolitical Twitter user, who becomes worried about this issue, begins informing him or herself about actions the U.S. government is taking to regulate social networking sites and advocating on and offline for these digital platforms to be more transparent about what they do with the private data of their users.

The increase in civic engagement among American online users indicates that social networking sites have the power to do more than shape public opinion of cultural events. Social networking sites are also influencing public perception and behavior around political and social events. Some of these events, such as the exploitation of online users for advertising revenue, are even catalyzed by social networking sites. Therefore, it is crucial that more American online users, organizations and government officials understand the role of social networking sites in the country’s political and social sphere to mitigate issues that threaten democracy.