This editorial was originally published on RampageWired.com, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy’s (HBHA) student news site.
America has always had a divide between the Democrats and the Republicans. Over the past few decades, we have witnessed our country split to extremes similar to both the 1860s and the 1960s. One major cause of this is the capacity to reply instantaneously and not face-to-face with your opposing believer through social media platforms.
Politics have always been heavily debated, but since the rise of social media, there have been fewer real debates and more aggressive attacks. Everyone is too busy trying to get their point across, and they forget how to act civilly. Social media enables people to lash out while hiding anonymously behind a screen, and this often results in people growing even more riled up.
There is so much hatred in the U.S. between Democrats and Republicans that people forget we are all part of one nation. Even though most Americans are not extremists when it comes to politics, the ones who make their beliefs known speak their minds. Those who speak their minds stand out to the world.
Social media is not the only cause of our country’s division. News channels and the politicians themselves share the blame for the increase in our constant divide. Certain news channels, including FOX and CNN, have always been biased and had a reputation for pandering to a certain party. Now, it is almost impossible to find straight facts of the political issues, which makes it harder for the citizens to form an opinion themselves.
“Thirty-to-forty years ago, the media was much more objective, so you felt like you were getting information, and you could make your own decision,” said Jenny Safir, a fourth-grade teacher at HBHA.
With the rise of social media and A.I., it only takes a few clicks to start spreading misinformation or disinformation. Since news spreads so quickly, more and more people believe this misinformation and disinformation.
Community member Carol Katzman explains how social media has eliminated everyone’s ability to have a more thoughtful reaction time. When it comes to politics, everyone used to take the time after watching a debate or hearing about a new policy to form their own opinion. Now, everything is on social media right when it happens. People will comment and post before they spend time getting the facts straight. This causes extreme comments to be posted online with severely harsh tones and equally polarizing responses.
Online comments lead to fighting between strangers in opposing political parties, which is a bad look for Americans and America as a country.
The political divide has always been present in America, but in the past, it has not been posted all over social media. Katzman shared, “I don’t think today’s divisiveness is any worse than it was 50 years ago. I think the thing that makes it appear to be worse is social media.”
Social media has taken political debates to another level. This is due to the memes and reposts on all platforms, but social media is not fully responsible for the lack of substance in the recent debates. The past three elections have been filled with lashing out, immature comments, and, especially in the Sept. 10 Trump-Harris debate, a lack of policy discussion.
Safir said a big cause of the recent increase in the political divide was the Trump-Clinton election in 2016. These two candidates were both so far away from the median that they pulled Americans as a whole away from each other. Due to the extremity of each candidate, propaganda and social media, people’s emotions got fired up. We saw this occur again during the Trump-Biden election in 2020.
Now, each party thinks the other is a threat, but politics were not always like that. Safir continued, “People are more opinionated in a way that’s not as open-minded, so when you discuss a topic, when before you could say your piece… now you’re cut off.” Twenty years ago, a political discussion could have stayed extremely respectful.
Whether someone is an extremist or not, their political beliefs give them a certain reputation. People make “assumptions about who a person is, like their core, from a candidate that they vote for, or somebody/a news agency they follow,” Safir said. This has caused our country to get to the point of judging people by their political beliefs, which Safir “just never remembered that happening before the last several years.”
According to the Pew Research Center, a person’s ideology more often now coincides with their political party. Most people’s social circles consist of people who “think like them.” Regardless of political beliefs, most liberals and conservatives want different lifestyles. They want to live in different places, and they want the people who marry into their families to have similar or equivalent beliefs regarding politics.
The political divide has also fractured families. People have such big disagreements that they quit having contact with close family members and friends because of ideological differences.
With some of Katzman’s family, they do not “talk politics … We just stay away from it.” She believes everyone has the right to vote for whichever candidate they choose, however, previous conversations have caused her to leave their family WhatsApp chat due to disagreements. If they decide to unfriend her due to her beliefs, then it is just “immature” and shows “a lack of confidence in your belief system.”
Everyone has pride, and when someone is talking about their beliefs, their pride shines through. When it comes to politics, people get a little too proud, and instead of debating, they fight.
Sofia Levine, a high school senior at HBHA, believes a lot of good can come out of getting certain information from social media platforms like TikTok.
Levine shared, “[Tiktok is] more accurate. It’s less biased, and it’s just like I’ll do my own research after I figure out what’s going on.” Even though not everything you see online is true, TikTok has clips from every perspective. You can even find the raw, unbiased facts and form your opinion by watching the clips.
Levine is, “all for Gen-Z, Gen-Alpha right now,” because she thinks kids are more open to understanding both sides.
Normally, people grow up hearing what their parents believe about each candidate and each policy, but because of social media, the younger generations are hearing and watching videos supporting and disagreeing with both parties. This is good because instead of being brainwashed, children are more aware of politics all around.
“The younger kids are getting better, but everyone else is getting worse… That’s why I’m hoping in the future [the political divide is] going to be better,” Levine said.
If this is true, then the future of America will be more open-minded. Instead of the pure hatred and stubbornness of the older generations (a big cause of the divide), Levine thinks people who recognize issues on both sides and consider themselves to be in the middle are improving political divisions.
On the other hand, the Democrats and Republicans have come together against TikTok. A bipartisan committee is currently trying to ban the app because they believe TikTok’s owners, ByteDance, collect data from their users. Both parties agree that information could go to the Chinese government.
Over the past century in America, there have been ups and downs when it comes to the political divide. America as a country has formed such hatred between the opposing parties that people tend to forget the fact that we are all part of one nation. We all have freedom of speech, and we all are allowed to support whichever candidates we prefer.
Stories like Katzman’s and many others show how even if America guarantees free speech in the Bill of Rights and maintains it as a cultural norm, socially we can not actually say whatever we believe. It leads to fights, disrespect of others and family/friendship breakups, so people have just learned to keep their mouths shut. Social media has shown us time and time again that for each thing someone says, another person will attack back in disagreement. Our country has become a nation of hate, and if someone does not want to get criticized, all they can do is keep their mouth shut.
Ruby Sokol is the co-editor-in-chief of RampageWired. More news and opinions from Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy students is available at RampageWired.com
