Written by: Eleanor Sanford
Dayton, TENN. — Social media has been on the rise on a global scale since 2004, when the first version of Facebook was released. It began as a simple social site where people could follow their friends and post about their daily lives.
Since that time, social media has expanded and evolved into social-political platforms. Broadband Research found that Americans spend over 144 minutes on social media every day. Over two hours each day is spent scrolling on apps that use algorithms to show the user-tailored content.
Pew Research found in a study that over 55 percent of American adults get their news solely from social media apps. Print media has almost completely dissolved from the current society. Instead, every person has access to the world in their back pocket. Over the past year, social media has declined in integrity and has become exceptionally politically polarized.
When everyone has access to a global platform without any accountability, rumors and falsity spread like wildfire. Currently, 55 percent of Americans get their news from these apps, and that number is continuously on the uprise. Without any unbiased fact-checking, this can become dangerous.
Over the past few weeks, former U.S. President Donald Trump was banned from popular social media apps such as Twitter and Facebook. The truth is being suppressed for the sake of political agendas. Americans must be aware of the censorship and algorithm techniques being used and avidly seek out accurate news.
Eleanor Sanford is a senior at Bryan College majoring in communications, media, and culture. She is an intern for the leadership and culture department at Bryan College. She loves to travel and used to live in Australia.
