This year’s election is swiftly approaching and stakes are rising higher as the countdown begins. The people of America have to weigh the pros and cons for all sides of the political party, especially the two main parties, the Democratic and Republican. Knowing that their votes will determine the state of the country for the next four years, it’s vital for people to gather all the information they can about this year’s politics. So how does this information reach millions of citizens? Throughout history, campaigning has been an effective method for gaining the votes of the general population. However, in recent times, it’s hard to miss the new method that spreads political information from one side of the country to the other, with just a tap of the finger. Thanks to the advancement of technology, social media has altered the way citizens receive information about politics, with one of the most popular sources of political information being TikTok. TikTok was released in September 2016 by ByteDance and was the most downloaded app in the United States in October 2018. I believe that what originated as a dancing and music app, has turned into one of the most influential apps for politics in modern society.
TikTok’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. Mainly targeting younger generations. Due to the overwhelming influx of users, Tiktok’s main purpose of sharing short videos of music and dancing has developed into something more complex. It started with branching into different categories of content, such as entertainment, fitness, sports, and DIY. However, with the past two presidential elections and this upcoming election, I’ve noticed a change in TikTok. There has been a shift in content regarding political debates and propaganda. Some of the notable political figures, Donald J. Trump, Kamala Harris, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. all have their own public platform on TikTok. Their content mainly focuses on making themselves and their ideas appeal to their audience. Due to the millions of views and likes, I’d say they are all successful in that aspect. However, they aren’t the only people posting about politics. Thousands of TikTok accounts post daily news or go on live streams to debate politics. I see that all this media can easily change citizen’s understanding of the political state of America.
In my opinion, TikTok does have an influence on how its users perceive information about politics. With such a massive platform, false information is easy to spread and cover the truth. It’s simple to manipulate words and information online to make either side of the political party look both promising or inadequate. I believe that young voters, who receive their information through TikTok, don’t put in effort to research who they are voting for. That most vote for who is more relatable or popular, rather than what they plan to do for our country. Although the media is a great way to share opinions and beliefs, it’s time that we finally take the time to think through who we vote for and what we believe in, not immediately believe everything we hear on TikTok
