Social Media Has Ruined American Politics

Normal debates and disagreements have been replaced by personal attacks, anger, and cynicism.

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(Getty Images)

There’s an interesting movement afoot in education circles to ban smart phone and social media use in schools. As of late 2024, eight states including a mix of blue and red, big and small ones (CA, FL, IN, LA, MN, OH, SC, and VA) have passed statewide bans or restrictions on cell phone use during class time in K-12 schools. The rationale for these policies is straightforward: cell phone and social media use in school is a massive distraction that negatively impacts teaching and subject matter concentration while adversely affecting young people’s mental health and contributing to bullying and other forms of antisocial behavior.

Parents, students, teachers, and administrators may disagree about the negative effects of phones in schools, or question specific implementation policies, but most seem to understand that some boundaries are needed to curtail phone use during classroom time. More than a decade of widespread phone and social media use has led different groups of Americans across the country toward a similar conclusion that excessive use of these devices and platforms is not good for us—especially for impressionable young people. We should therefore expect more states to investigate this approach and pass school bans or restrictions in the future.

The bigger question is why Americans don’t apply this same logic and personal experience about phone and social media use to adults who are just as distracted and negatively impacted by social media platforms as their kids, even if few will admit it. How much time does the average person waste on their phone (or other device) scrolling through asinine or anger-inducing stuff on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, or YouTube? A lot if we are honest with ourselves.

Although these tools do provide easy-to-use mechanisms for information gathering and idea sharing, they have quickly developed into funhouse mirrors that amplify the absolute worst traits of human beings. People on social media are often rash, vain, mean, deceptive, or full of malicious intent. For every good social media feed presenting valuable and reliable information there are ten others pushing out-of-context clips and quotes, inflammatory opinions, fabrications, and outright lies. The more we encounter other people who embody these traits on social media the worse it gets for everyone. Our instincts, along with the platform algorithms themselves, encourage us to either fight or flee from these interactions. But we also passively absorb a ton of social media nonsense every day—through morbid fascination and screen addiction—and it’s wearing us down and making us dumber.

A once useful tool for information and opinion dissemination has morphed into a handheld ball and chain that too often makes us angry, confused, less informed, and more cynical.

This is particularly true when examining how politics is conducted through social media. Politics has always brought out the worst characteristics in people, but when conducted fairly and honestly politics also has the potential to help Americans learn more about their government, other people’s ideas, and different ways of approaching common national or local challenges. It’s difficult to say the latter outcome is happening much through widespread use of social media. If anything the opposite is true—we are learning less, fighting more, and becoming scornful of many aspects of public life.

Part of this is built in to our political culture and history. America has the best and most far-reaching protections of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly of any country in the world. We cherish these First Amendment freedoms regardless of partisanship and are rightly concerned when federal, state, or local governments seek to curtail these rights.

However, as the Founding Fathers well understood, the right to free speech also requires a great deal of personal responsibility on the part of American citizens. This means we shouldn’t use our free speech rights to incite violence, promote falsehoods, threaten people, or undermine the rights of others. The natural right to freedom of thought and speech that enamored America’s founders requires both legal protections and social norms that encourage citizens to use their legal rights wisely and with a serious focus on promoting the public good as well as their own personal beliefs.

Contemporary social media norms represent the exact opposite of responsible use of our free speech rights. Political opponents routinely threaten one another and spread falsehoods to their supporters. Extremists promote antisemitism and other forms of sectarian, racial, ethnic, or sex-based bigotry. Big names and small names alike pipe off nonstop on social media platforms about public issues, often without presenting full context or even factually correct information.

Instead of listening to or exploring alternative perspectives from those with different political or social beliefs, Americans mostly take to social media to find apostates and to lambast and gloat over their opponents.

When was the last time you had an hour’s worth of civil or enlightening discussions about politics with someone on social media? There’s an occasional thread or two from someone who really knows their stuff or has an interesting and unique take on a subject. Every now and then people connect through these platforms, ask questions, and challenge each other’s facts or interpretations in a respectful manner. But the bulk of the time on political social media, the norm is to confront and belittle others for their beliefs—not to pursue courteous discourse or engage in mutual learning with other citizens about their ideas.

Naturally, the norms in our organized partisan political life today—through campaigns and elections and in various governmental proceedings—have also evolved to look a lot like our social media use: nasty, mean, tense, and full of falsehoods and personal accusations. Less cooperation and civility; more preening and rancor.

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Free speech is nearly absolute in America, and the government can’t and shouldn’t try to restrict or ban it like the states are now doing with phone and social media use by students in schools.

But with the extremely drawn out 2024 election finally behind us, maybe more people will leave social media altogether for a period of time and focus on other things in life. Maybe Americans will go back to reading more books, newspapers, and other periodicals or taking in more radio programs, podcasts, and television shows that offer interesting discussions and civil debate on important national issues.

A little down time from social media at the start of a new presidential term may be good for everyone, regardless of their partisan affiliation or who they support. Who knows, maybe when people start up their feeds again after a break they will use their free speech rights more responsibly this time around?

With X and now Meta moving towards allowing unlimited BS on their platforms in the name of free expression, it will be incumbent on citizens to better control themselves and their impulses. Perhaps Americans will actually enjoy a new approach to social media and try to find some common ground and honest disagreements with others rather than cynically waging war on their political opponents through nonstop posting and personal attacks.