To quote a popular meme of Vice President Kamala Harris, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” Well according to Harris, it’s not that simple, and neither is the impact that social media has had on the presidential election.
Viral posts and trends on social media about the upcoming election are running rampant. This popular content includes the photo of former President Donald Trump with a bloody ear due to an assassination attempt in July, garnering fame on social media for his triumphant fist and American flag waving in the background. Many female viewers appreciated the internet’s seemingly unanimous decision that Harris is the embodiment of “brat,” a term that stems from Charli XCX’s hit album “Brat” and whose meaning is synonymous with girlhood, cool-girl style and feminism.
“I’ve been subject to many ads [while watching] YouTube; every single one is something political from one of the parties,” said senior Amy Robson. “I’ve seen primarily Kamala Harris [in the ads], and I’ve seen plenty of TikToks and Instagram reels about this meme that’s a combination of Harris’ social media campaign and ‘Brat’ summer.”
While the candidates are frequently posted about, they also do the posting. Trump and Harris are active on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok. Trump joined TikTok on June 1 while Harris joined on July 25, obtaining 11.6 million and 5.8 million followers respectively as of September 29. Some new voters find these to be useful sources of information.
“Many people our age who can vote, such as 18 through 24 year-olds, use social media and can view the pages [of the candidates],” said senior Lizzie D’Amaro. “[The pages] can help those who are undecided or who need more information on each candidate.”
Additionally, Trump’s and Harris’s social media campaigns have been augmented by celebrity endorsements. In a recent post on her Instagram endorsing Kamala Harris, Taylor Swift also encouraged the public to register, and she provided a URL to the vote.gov page to do so, which the General Services Administration said received 405,999 visitors in under 24 hours. The day before the post was published, the site only had 30,000 visitors.
Posts like these have been received with overall positivity from celebrity fan bases.
“[Swift] is really happy that Harris is taking a stand for women’s rights, IVF, and LGBTQ+ rights,” said sophomore Ainsley Fachner. “Especially as it’s a woman doing it because honestly it’s about time.”
Harris has also attracted the interest of other pop culture icons; singer Olivia Rodrigo reshared a TikTok on her Instagram story of one of Harris’ rallies, and rapper Cardi B tweeted “…I TOLD YALLL KAMALA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE 2024 candidate….”
For Trump, the founder of Barstool Sports (a sports and pop culture blog with almost 40 million followers on TikTok), Dave Portnoy, backed him in an interview with Fox, saying that voting for Trump is a “no-brainer.” Similarly, YouTuber Jake Paul has made YouTube videos about Trump and hosted Trump on his podcast, “Impaulsive.”
With all of the excitement on these socials, it makes sense that 39% of U.S. adults under 30 say they regularly get their news on TikTok and 54% of U.S. adults overall at least sometimes get news from social media according to pewresearch.org.
“I like social media because news can be spread quickly and people can share their opinions,” said Fachner. “I like seeing the different perspectives.”
Others prefer to avoid social media when forming their opinions due to what they see as bias. Instead, they opt for news sources seen as neutral, such as The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal, to stay informed.
“I’m trying to stay away from social media as much as possible because I’m 18 and I need to vote in this upcoming election,” said senior Alex Cross. “Social media heavily skews everything said by the candidates and there’s a lot of false information that circulates as well.”
Social media posts are typically highly calculated, and don’t just fall from a coconut tree. They become ideas, and ideas spread, so those like Cross advise being mindful when consuming content on social media.
