The Role of Social Media/Technology in Today's Society: An Analysis

This essay examines the role of social media and technology in contemporary society, arguing that politicians should actively utilize social media platforms. It addresses concerns about potential negative impacts while highlighting the benefits of online engagement, such as reduced campaign costs, increased voter reach, and access to broader social issues. The essay provides evidence through examples of successful digital marketing campaigns, like those of Donald Trump and Leo Varadkar, demonstrating how politicians can leverage social media for effective communication and election success. The paper concludes that politicians must embrace social media as a tool for connecting with voters and understanding societal issues, thereby enhancing their ability to govern and respond to public needs. The essay draws on various academic sources to support its claims, discussing how social media is reshaping political communication and campaign strategies globally.

Running head: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA/TECHNOLOGY IN TODAY’S SOCIETY
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA/TECHNOLOGY IN TODAY’S SOCIETY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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Introduction:
Considering the rapid growth of technology it has been identified that there is a
significance of social media. While analyzing the application of social media it is identified that
Social media is one of the popular technology that helps to interconnect with people across the
world. Along with this aspect it has been noticed that via the utilization of social media user can
easily share information with the other people (Larsson and Bente Kalsnes 658). On the other
hand politics is also one of the major factor on the nominated country as it is associated with the
government of the country.
Making allowance to this concern it is identified that a major conflict has been raised
related to these topics, in which it is mentioned that politicians should not be able to have a
public social media account (Kushin et al. 68). However, several people has supported this
statement but many of the people has also opposed to this statement. Hence, in this paper I will
be argue against this statement as according to my view point politicians must use social media
same as the other population of the country.
Claim:
In the statement it is mentioned that none of the politician should use social media.
Centralizing this statement several person has stated several opinions by mentioning that none of
the political leaders should use social media as in social media several categories of people
present with different age, gender as well as the cast and they might get effected by any
statement of the politicians. Along with this they has also stated that it any of the popular
politician opens any social media account they will get disturbed by the people of the country as
the features of social media will help them to get in touch will their favorite politicians

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(Boulianne 532). Along with this it has been also noticed that due to the presence of politicians
on social media may cause a limitation to that politician as along with the supports in social
media there are some significance of hater also present who will try to bring the leader down that
may impact the image of the candidate (Strandberg 1336). However, according to my view point
it is not at all any problem for a politician for being active in social media as this may
significantly help the leader to be aware of the social scenario as well as social issues faced by
the people of the country.
Reason:
Followed by the above discussion it can be stated that there are enough reason for a
politician to be active on social media. As in the previous discussion it was mentioned that social
media helps to communicate with people as well as helps to share information across the world.
While relating this aspect with the mentioned concern it is identified that social media helps the
leaders to get connected with their voters which helps the leaders to reduce their cost of rally and
advertisement. Along with this while considering the advertisement process it is identified that
social media platform holds the feature to effectively advertise their party that may significantly
attracts the people which will help to increase voters (Wolfsfeld et al. 122). Along with this
since, social media helps the leaders to advertise their party thus, there will be less road rallies
which will reduce road jams. Followed by the above mentioned benefits it is also identified that
politicians present in the social media has the feature to share their views on social media and
this will help to spread the massage among the other people. Along with these benefits a leader
active in social media will have the access to the all sort of information related to the national
problems and they will be also able to spread their message to the citizens with very less prices
(Holt et al. 28). Hence, followed by the discussion it can be stated that it will be beneficial for the

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politician to improve their advertisement as well as helps the leaders to get connected with the
people that will help the leader to know about their problems and will also focus to mitigate
identified issues and it will also help them to gather feedback from the population as well.
Evidence:
Political parties all over the world are learning that with traditional mediums’ advertising
like newspaper and television, they should invest into digital marketing if willing to compete
against the rival parties. Few campaigns of political marketing are highlighted as how they
leveraged digital for successfully promoting their nominee (Xenos et al. 42). One of most
successful example for digital marketing in politics is digital campaign of Donald Trump. No
one could deny the campaign of president of USA was totally effective. Several people even say
that this won Trump the election. One main name for campaign of digital marketing of Trump is
Parscale. He was the one behind digital efforts of Trump. Working intimately along with Trump,
Parscale was among very little people allowed in tweeting from personal account of Trump in
Twitter.
Another guy who used social media for successful digital campaign is Leo Varadkar. He
was elected as Taoiseach of Ireland. A major role was played by digital marketing for his
success, especially in form of the online videos (Stieglitz et al. 1282). He thinks that platform of
social media would play an essential part in modernization of communications of Government
and used it for great effect.
Conclusion:
Politicians are quick in blaming media when they are not put into favorable light by news
story. However, politicians use platform of social media also for winning elections through

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getting exposure which are required for reaching the voters. In the election years, the people who
are in social media need to prepare themselves for manipulation they would face when the quest
of a politician for the office runs head-on in desire of meida for seeking the truth. Today,
candidates could bypass broadcast and could print media for reaching the potential media by
using platform of social media. Wise candidate must realize that platform of social media must
be used as tool.

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References
Boulianne, Shelley. "Social media use and participation: A meta-analysis of current research."
Information, communication & society 18.5 (2015): 524-538.
Holt, Kristoffer, et al. "Age and the effects of news media attention and social media use on
political interest and participation: Do social media function as leveller?." European Journal of
Communication 28.1 (2013): 19-34.
Kushin, Matthew James, and Masahiro Yamamoto. "Did social media really matter? College
students’ use of online media and political decision making in the 2008 election." New Media,
Campaigning and the 2008 Facebook Election. Routledge, 2013. 63-86.
Larsson, Anders O., and Bente Kalsnes. "‘Of course we are on Facebook’: Use and non-use of
social media among Swedish and Norwegian politicians." European Journal of Communication
29.6 (2014): 653-667.
Stieglitz, Stefan, and Linh Dang-Xuan. "Social media and political communication: a social
media analytics framework." Social network analysis and mining 3.4 (2013): 1277-1291.
Strandberg, Kim. "A social media revolution or just a case of history repeating itself? The use of
social media in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary elections." new media & society 15.8 (2013):
1329-1347.
Wolfsfeld, Gadi, Elad Segev, and Tamir Sheafer. "Social media and the Arab Spring: Politics
comes first." The International Journal of Press/Politics 18.2 (2013): 115-137.

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Xenos, Michael A., Ariadne Vromen, and Brian D. Loader. "The great equalizer? Patterns of
social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies." The
Networked Young Citizen. Routledge, 2014. 33-54.