Most adults remember turning on the news or reading print media to see what’s going on in politics, but today’s new generation does things differently. Youth and young adults more often catch candidates’ opinions on “X” (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. Campaigns know this, of course, and they’re using these new mediums to reach followers and prospective new voters.
“If you look at the way that politicians communicate today, it’s very different than the way that they used to communicate five, 10 years ago,” said Wharton marketing professor Pinar Yildirim in a recent University of Pennsylvania business journal post. “Today, they are communicating through places like Twitter.”
Former President Donald Trump is apparently one of few 78-year-old men using social media.
In 2008, Senator Barack Obama took the then-novel approach of directing significant campaign money to online ad placement, posting live and recorded town-halls, and uplifting supporters’ voices on apps like Facebook. In 2008, many people didn’t even consider Facebook a “phone app”. It was still primarily a website you visited from your computer. Some of the most popular phones of the day were the RIM Blackberry Bold, with its teensy-weensy half-VGA display. The Apple iPhone 3G was about as advanced as an app-using phone could get at the time, and you couldn’t even install Facebook on it.
Obama’s opponent, GOP Arizona Sen. John McCain played the role of “elder statesman” by sticking to the decades-old tactics of investing primarily in television, print ads, mailers, and public rallies, and lost.
But in the last couple of elections, particularly the 2024 election, social media has become an essential source of information for candidates trying to reach a younger audience. In fact, social media is a significant source—and sometimes the only source—of material for first-time and younger voters.
The Pew Research Center claims more than 40% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say social media is their primary source of news. This number drops quickly after the age of 30, with 22% of Americans aged 30-49 claiming social media as a primary news source. That number plummets even more to 6% and 3% respectively for Americans aged 50-64 and people older than 65. Former President Donald Trump is apparently one of few 78-year-old men using social media.
The future of social media looks even more inevitable when Pew ran the full numbers, determining a greater number of 18–29-year-olds (41%) were getting their news from social media than 65+ year-olds were getting from their favored method of cable news shows (30%).
“Never have politicians been so accessible to the public,” said authors Maria Petrova and Ananya Sen in the Wharton University of Pennsylvania report, The Impact of New Technology on Political Competition.
Authors say candidates' ability to draw in and maintain their online following can be directly measured by their engagement rates, with high engagement illustrating more intimate and enthusiastic relationships. An elevated rate of engagement also indicates a candidate's material and message is sparking the interest of their audience, while lower rates of participation immediately suggest what content or policy strategy needs to be tweaked to better suit constituents’ preferences.
The decentralized nature of online information comes with big downsides, however. With the exception of “news companies” who are surrogates of only one political party, traditional news outlets generally police the information they release. They follow decades of good writing policies and precedent that hold reporters to high standards in terms of truth and honesty. A failure on that front easily opens newspapers to the risk of legal retaliation, particularly if editors and the business team fail to properly vet information.
Online platforms have no such guidance. Inaccuracy—even outright deception—moves quickly on social platforms. In July, a joke post on the social media platform “X” claimed Republican Vice-Presidential candidate JD Vance wrote a memoir containing a passage about having sex with an "inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions." There is no such passage in Vance's book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” but the fake citation, complete with fabricated page numbers, caught fire across the internet and made Vance the butt of late-night comedy riffs.
The other downside to candidates relying on social media to gain supporters is how difficult it can be to control the narrative. A post viewed by millions leaves plenty of opportunity for a handful of voices to get an unwanted impression that subsequently dominates the national discussion. The most a candidate can do is research good information and hope the public reacts predictably.
That is, if it reacts at all. Online engagement can be incredibly fickle. Last year, Mississippi Democratic Attorney General candidate Greta Kemp Martin ran against Republican opponent Lynn Fitch in the aftermath of Fitch destroying Roe v. Wade with a Mississippi lawsuit at the U.S. Supreme Court. Martin’s pro-women’s rights posts on “X” should have conceivably drummed up more reaction from the platform’s young list of users, particularly after Fitch bragged openly about her role in the death of Roe. But her posts and activity only grabbed lukewarm reactions. Kemp’s online presence also failed to culminate in a November victory with Mississippi’s majority white, comparatively older population.
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This story is part of our GOTV coverage in partnership with pro-voter nonprofit Faircount. Coverage will continue into November.
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