Author: Sriya Tallapragada

New Providence, NJ

Every presidency, and every election, is defined by the communication technologies of the day; McKinley’s campaign commercials, FDR’s and his fireside chats, Roosevelt’s “sissy reformers” slogan, etc. Now we are in the Trump-era of politics, where daily rage-bait and frequent scandals have made the American government system look more like an episode of “South Park” than the worldwide champion of democracy that we supposedly are. The communication platform that has emerged on top for political discourse, arguably, is Twitter.

As a chronically online user of Twitter (X?), I’d like to say I’ve seen the worst of the internet’s rage, especially when it comes to an issue as divisive as politics. I’ve seen quasi wars started over hashtags, twitter-nazis commiting genocide over typos, and careers destroyed over unpopular opinions. Despite its faults, I’ve always turned to Twitter in times of disarray across our country, where ordinary people are given platforms to rant about, criticize, and give voice to issues that affect them. Each time, without fail, twitter has backed me up, with users delivering passionate (an oftentimes uncensored) rants on *everything* they think is going wrong with our country.

I’ve seen some pretty bizarre (read: embarrassing) incidents… The time a horde of far-right lunatics broke into the nation’s capital on January 6th, that time when a guy (George Santos) lied his way into the New York congressional office, the infamous MTG Fake Eyelashes incident, and so much more than I could name. Still, I think the presidential debate performance that I watched (albeit, in the spaces between my hand-covered eyes) easily tops this list. When two men are arguing about golf to gain access to our nuclear codes, you know the country is in trouble. Trump, in his usual fashion, spent much of the debate hiding behind lies and falsified statements. Although there were plenty of opportunities for Biden to clap back, he often struggled to complete his sentences and voice coherent thoughts. At one point in the debate, Trump pinned down Bidens’ incoherence by saying“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either.” Although I don’t agree with Trump on many things, that statement is something I can get behind.

Immediately after watching the debate, in my dazed state, I opened up Twitter and braced myself for what would surely be one of the angriest hoards of users yet. I expected to see critics on both sides, outrage about Trumps’ lies, and anger about what this election season has boiled down to. To my surprise, however, instead of outright outrage, I found memes. I spent the next two hours scrolling on my feed, laughing from the hilarious observations people had. User @ginnyhogan_ summed up the humiliation we felt by tweeting “ok if you don’t live in the US, please turn the debate off. This is our private family humiliation, and we’d prefer you not stare.” User @AlphaDogPun made people laugh with sarcasm, saying “Look, I like both of these candidates. I just think we need somebody older”. User @joshgondelman poked fun at Biden’s strange language choice, tweeting “‘You have the morals of an alley cat,’ is like something you sing about the Grinch.” My personal favorite came from @drewjanda, who accurately summed up the two candidates, saying “Biden: look, the fact is, we can’t… we don’t… look. Here’s the deal. And this is no foolin. Trump: there are ten billion Guatemalans attacking the Lincoln Memorial right now”. 

This new form of communication has taken twitter, the internet, and, by extension, modern communication, by storm. In the era where people’s attention spans are shorter than goldfishes’, memes are, inherently, a stronger and quicker way to get a political point across than long texts or videos. The darker side of the meme culture is that it can shift the conversation away from policy. A study exploring Facebook memes during the 2016 Presidential Election found that memes on both candidates tended to focus on smaller, relatively insignificant moments in a campaign; Trump-memes talked about his wacky expressions and iconic hair, while Clinton-memes focused on some of her scandals and sketchy relationships. Politically-active citizens aren’t the only ones utilizing meme culture… candidates are in their campaigns. For example, as recently seen in the Trump campaign; for example the “Dark Brandon” meme, or the reason why Trump posted his own mugshot on social media.

However, despite its faults, there is no denying that creators of memes have the unique power to share their ideas and beliefs with a large online audience and even shape voting decisions. Recent research found that between 20% and 30% of people who share political memes do so, in part, with the intent to change others’ minds. They can get people interested in politics by pulling attention towards a flashy, humorous moment. Better yet, memes offer an opportunity for political discourse that’s open-ended; concealed behind the humor is an opinion, something which a user could agree or disagree with. Unlike rants or speeches, memes don’t lead to the conflict and division that has so often characterized political discourse. A study by UT Austin’s Center for Media Engagement found that using Facebook memes to encourage people to think about their common humanity with others significantly increased their positive feelings toward people they disagree with politically. Indeed, this is what I saw as a response to recent debate; even in the face of a division as polarizing as the one between Trump and Biden, memes had the power to bring citizens together on a human level.

This October, I will be blowing out the Birthday candles on my 18th birthday. While there are many new rights I get to enjoy with my adulthood (which include, but are not restricted to, joining the military, signing a lease, getting a tattoo without parental consent), the only one I plan to immediately exercise will be my right to vote. I’ve followed politics quite closely over the past few years, and I’m finally at the age where my opinion holds weight in government decisions. While the recent debate showed me (and millions of Americans) that the options we have aren’t great, the responses I’ve seen on social media have given me some hope for the future of our country. People, behind the layer of humor, are having coherent discussions and voicing their opinions about important issues, setting a good example for the politicians that are supposed to represent us.