Column: How to Navigate Social Media during this Shaky Time
These are shaky times. I’m not going to go into election results analysis or personal political views or ideologies right now, but I can tell just by walking through campus the morning of November 9 that an odd fog of mixed emotions and realized opinions has settled upon Los Altos.
According to CNN, over 115 million people discussed the election on Facebook, and more than 75 million election-related tweets were sent during election day. And in order to navigate this massive influx of opinions, we need to understand the proper ways to use social media to our greatest advantage. Good thing I made an extremely serious list of Do’s and Don’ts for post-election social media use.
-DON’T shy away from overusing a joke. Posting a picture of the Canadian immigration website is not just hilarious: now you can match everyone else in your feed!
-DON’T be afraid to use the “anger” reaction to step up your liking game on Facebook. Together, America, we can bring about social change by filling the world with tiny pissed-off faces.
-DO take the moral high ground and use clever nicknames for Trump. Like Cheeto-Jesus. Classic.
-DO get into a heated fight argument on Instagram, preferably with someone you won’t see in class tomorrow. Make sure to immediately call out their lack of evidence, fixate your argument on their typos and if you have time, insult some part of their profile regardless of its relevance. Get your friends involved in the action too.
-DO continue to popularize the hashtag #calexit on Twitter. It’s exciting to be part of a state threatening succession like a teenager threatening to run away from home. It’s the just right amount of harsh.
-DO make sure to plaster your feelings all over every social media account you own, even if you are followed by mostly the same people on each one. Sometimes, I don’t fully understand the depth of so-and-so’s disappointment in America until I’ve seen their Snapchat story, Facebook status and private Instagram.
But I will admit, in the midst of all the crying selfies, ironic geofilter usage, hyperactive newsfeeds and overall noise across the internet, I am grateful that at least we have the freedom to contribute to it. We still have our voices, no matter how obnoxious. #trendypoliticalmovement.