Social media, political burnout impact young voters in Western Pa.

Social media content and politics mix, but that can create voter fatigue.

“There’s a combination of curation (on social media) that we’re doing that we’re aware that we’re doing by who we follow or what we like, and then there’s curation that’s sort of being done for us by algorithms that we don’t fully know what they’re choosing for us or why,” said Lara Putnam, faculty affiliate of Pitt’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security.

Putnam is co-lead of the Southwest PA Civic Resilience Initiative of Pitt Cyber, which works with the Pitt Disinformation Lab. She said a Pitt survey of young people found they are gravitating toward the social media platforms Reddit, Instagram and TikTok and are engaging with traditional news media through social media by using links or outlets’ social profiles.

“Content that produces the most reactions and engagement is gonna be accelerated into people’s feeds,” she said. “Negative engagement is as accelerating in general as positive engagement.”

News on social media can include traditional news media sources but also influencers and other commentators posting about news, Putnam said.

“A lot of our experience of the world and what we think is our assessment of what is happening in this city, in this region, in this country is coming to us curated by digital devices,” Putnam said. “It is a mix of media and social media original sources, but what slice we’re seeing is not the same.”

Social media content has reinforced Darcy Bowman’s choice in the presidential election rather than changed it.

“Social media definitely has a big influence,” she said. “I think at the core, no, it doesn’t influence me, but I think it definitely brings about issues that are important.”

A registered Democrat, Bowman, 24, of Bell Township, is studying at the University of Pittsburgh to become a physician assistant. She said she follows social media accounts on both sides of the aisle.

Looking at social media also has confirmed Avery Heller’s choice in former President Donald Trump. He believes social media “can certainly be dangerous if you’re not following the right people” and looking at accounts on both sides of a debate.

“There’s certain people, certain accounts that put out disinformation, misinformation,” he said. “They leave out a lot of important details in the news — lie or smear about certain candidates.”

On the X platform, Heller, 20, of Murrysville, said he utilizes the “community notes” feature to add context to posts that may be misleading. On Instagram, he said he tends to look at comments to learn about people who disagree.

“I’ve seen certain posts that are spreading blatant lies,” said Heller, who works for the Postal Service as a mail handler assistant.

Because of algorithmic and personal curation on social media, Putnam said each person is only getting a narrow slice of the amount of news and opinion content being circulated online.

“Of course, people don’t perceive … either media or social media as determining our political decisions or our political perceptions, but when the lens from which we look out at the world is shaped by our devices, what we end up seeing there is gonna shape what we think is happening in the world,” Putnam said.

Some people may therefore not see information about a different group, party or other candidate than the ones they’re affiliated with, she said.

Mike Chiarlone, 24, of Pittsburgh’s South Side, said social media hasn’t swayed him as a voter, as he tries to put posts through the “smell test” before believing them outright. He does believes social media is an “effective strategy” for politicians.

“That’s where young people are on a daily basis,” he said. “I know there’s some stuff that’s out there in the age of artificial intelligence, manipulation of different images, which is kind of concerning.”

Chiarlone chairs the Allegheny County Young Republicans.

With the funny edits being posted on social media, such as the Harris connection to “brat summer” and Trump’s commentary on dogs and cats during a presidential debate, Patrick Francis, 21, of Shadyside said the tides have changed on social media in terms of attitudes toward politics.

They're Eating The Dogs (Trump) is my favorite Vince Guaraldi track off the Peanuts album pic.twitter.com/cCxPPOrWlh

— Felix (@FelixTweetsNow) September 11, 2024

“My political views were generally shaped by commenters on YouTube when I was a teenager,” he said.

Despite the funny, entertaining and sometimes chaotic content on social media about politics, Putnam said it can be demobilizing.

“If you feel like politics is either a realm of horrible people think horrible things because that’s what you see on your feed or that it’s kind of all a joke and entertainment, either way, it can encourage us to think about … politics (as) something out there that we’re not the protagonist of,” she said.

Putnam compared the practice to watching reality TV or cheering for a favorite sports team.

“Social media has a potential to bring us into a broader conversations and expose us to lots of different views,” she said. “But in practice, it also has a tendency to make us into pretty cynical spectators rather than understanding this is a collective project that we all need to be part of.”

It’s fine to laugh at remixes and memes that are posted online, Putnam said, but it would be great for people to balance doing that with actually talking to representatives and pushing for local change.

“We live in a democracy,” she said. “We need to believe that we can make a change, and we need to believe that we can make our voices heard.”

Cory Roma said he believes social media played a “huge” part in convincing President Joe Biden to drop out of the race.

“I just saw everyone like five-alarm fire panicking online,” he said of his experience on X this summer.

Roma, 24, of Crafton, said despite social media discourse, his position on who should be the next president hasn’t changed — he plans on voting for Harris.

However, he believes social media “absolutely” has affected the election.

Roma said the best example of social media’s influence on this presidential election were the memes surrounding Harris.

An audio clip from a 2023 speech that was formerly criticized is now being embraced by Gen Z.

“ ‘You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’ ” Harris asks in the speech, quoting what her mother used to say, before laughing and then growing serious. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

why did I stay up till 3am making a von dutch brat coconut tree edit featuring kamala harris and why can’t I stop watching it on repeat pic.twitter.com/hqcmerD1Pb

— ryan (@ryanlong03) July 3, 2024

Kamala fans are too creative man what is this???????????? pic.twitter.com/4eKF3ijuZ6

— lucas???????????? (@Luctranada) July 22, 2024

“All of the negative context surrounding Kamala changed around due to social media,” he said.

Feelings of burnout

For at least the past eight years, Chiarlone said, he has seen a lot of young voter fatigue.

“It’s been tiring for everyone. There’s a lot of burnout,” he said.

Although about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.

And a Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly 2 in 3 Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, the Associated Press reported, which is about the same as a poll from early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news, according to the Associated Press.

Heller said he has noticed burnout among young voters, but, for him, politics and “peaceful conversations” are intriguing. “You don’t actually need to hate people who disagree,” he said.

Francis said he doesn’t believe he’s in “the majority” of those who are feeling burnout from the news and politics overall.

“I follow politics heavily and care deeply about it,” he said. “But that number is definitely changing by quite a lot as well.”

As a member of the Pitt College Democrats, Francis, 21, of Shadyside, said he’s seen more people joining the club.

The organization went from around 20 people showing up to meetings at the end of last semester to around 80 people per meeting at the start of this semester, according to Henry Cohen, co-president of Pitt College Democrats. There was a 145% voter turnout increase on campus in 2023 compared to 2021, he said.

Though Roma said he understands people’s feelings of burnout, it’s still frustrating.

“I get mad at my fellow young voters for feeling that way and just not engaging in the process because our futures are at stake,” he said. “(But) even I can admit like doing this every year … it’s very draining … there’s never an off switch because every election is so important.”

People feeling empowered to have a voice in government is essential, according to Putnam. She encouraged people to connect with others offline as an antidote to politics.

“My hope is that young people — but not only young people — can create ways of moving forward that take advantage of the positive aspects of media and social media and all of the digital technology but do so in a way that doesn’t feed cynicism and doesn’t make people feel disempowered, but it sort of helps people step into action,” she said.