2018 - 2022 Major American Political Timeline
2018
BlackLivesMatter had been tweeted 30 million times in the span of a couple of years.
The fifth-year anniversary of BLM and the death of Grechario Mack and Kenneth Ross Jr.
Trump's presidency was at its height.
#METOO goes global
USA leaves the Iran Nuclear deal
Concerns of global warnings reach an all-time high
2019
Rapper 21 Savage was detained by USA immigration agency ICE
Oklahoma teenager Isaiah Lewis was shot and killed by police officers.
End of the year, word of a pandemic in China of a highly contagious virus
US-North Korea Nuclear Talks
US-China trade wars continue
Donald Trump is impeached but stays in office till term
2020
Start of the global pandemic in March
Death of Ruth Beder Ginsburg
Death of George Floyd in Minneapolis
Thousands marched in London to show solidarity for their American counterparts.
Breanna Taylor was killed in her home while sleeping due to cops having the wrong information and ignorantly shooting 27 bullets into her apartment complex as well as a neighboring one.
Ahmaud Arbery was hunted by three white men and killed
Amy Coney Barrett is appointed as a Supreme Court Justice
2021
Major police reform was taken after the cops who killed George Floyd were prosecuted
690 mass shootings
Global Democratic erosions continue
This is highlighted by the January 6th insurrections
Duante Wright was killed in the Brooklyn center by police who were trying to Tase him
President is Joe Biden and the Legislative and Judicial branches are majority Republican
2022
Uvalde school shooting
600+ mass shootings; second highest record in a year.
Gas prices went higher than ever
Start of recession
Elon Musk bought Twitter
Political strife
The pandemic was a hard time for everyone, as well as the past twenty-three years, have been. Throughout the start of this century there were moments and patches where it seemed that, as a country, we were hopeless. We were years behind in terms of being racially and socially progressive as we thought. The issues highlighted in the timeline I gave you are extensive well past anything we know. They are the shockwaves and remnants of Slavery, Jim Crow, colonization, and westward expansion. So they were not new issues but more like awakenings. We have had years of pent-up tension that simply continued on well through the pandemic and even to our present day. Most people feel hopeless and as if nothing has changed. The American people, specifically people of color have been going through it and needed some means to survive. They needed a reminder that better days can come but until that reality came to fruition they needed distractions. They needed hope.
During the past twenty years, three major issues were brought up that I highlighted in my Timeline. Black Lives Matter took off as a hashtag to help combat racial discrimination against African Americans. This movement was the biggest leap in the ever continuous movement for civil rights in over 50 years. Countries were banding together with the organization that started out of LA after the death of Trayvon Martin. The organization quickly took off on Social media after they started highlighting the unjust killing of black individuals. From 2012-2018 the group was at its height till its revival in 2021 with the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. These cases were the biggest instances of true justice in our country and what it looked like when we came together.
Then another prevalent issue was the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This was after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and with the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court. This appointment was controversial as Trump and the Republicans in the House and Senate rushed her in. Many citizens were upset that the years Ginsburg put into fighting for Women's reproductive rights would be threatened by the presence of Amy who was polar to Ginsburg’s beliefs. Now it was majority Republican rule and that meant they had the upper hand to combat Democratic implications. They overturned a precedent that sat for decades and put the reproductive rights of women across the nation in jeopardy.
Lastly, for our trifecta hitter, we have the uprising in the fight for stricter gun control and opposition that seeks to maintain our second amendment right to its fullest. Mass shootings and school shootings have been on the rise for the past few decades. Events such as Columbine, the shooting at Pulse, and the Las Vegas shooting are becoming normal events that we know to plan for rather than actively combat. Children are scared to go to school or even movie theaters. Outside used to be too expensive but now it's just a war zone. So how do we use guns to combat these issues or do we restrict bands to solve our problem?
Lastly, the next big thing people had to deal with (as if the three mentioned before were not enough) was a global pandemic. The coronavirus was a highly contagious virus that came out of China. Where it originated is still unknown but what was known is that we knew nothing. This naturally scared everyone because while the short-term effects seemed minor for the majority of the population it was not the case for everyone. Many with other health complications or those who were below the poverty line were hit really hard. They did not have proper access to healthcare or vaccinations when they rolled out. We also had no clue what the long-term effects would be. That is in reference to the physical effects on the human body as well as the mental and economic waves it would make for our country. People were forced inside and businesses closed. Human interaction seemed to come to a halt and our phones, laptops, tablets, and televisions were glued as we solely walked around the house forced to interact with our family. Times were different as the last time we had a pandemic on the same scale was in the 1920s during the Spanish flu. Now we are way more technologically advanced. We approach matters differently but how do we cope? How do we balance the political and socio-economic issues plaguing our country? Can social media really be a tool to help us with distress rather than the common conception that it only furthers stress? Hang on tight because that concludes our introduction and I am about to take you on a rollercoaster.
Review of Literature and Analysis
For the literature I wanted to look at specific ways people have been using social media. Before (in the very early days) you could arguably say one demographic was dominating social media usage. It was the upperclassmen and young adults with younger kids and elderly people mainly staying off. This continued well until the present but now you do see more people of varying ages using social media platforms ranging from TikTok to Facebook. However no matter what the general public has to say this all changed around March 22nd, 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed school contexts and social opportunities dramatically for adolescents around the world. During the pandemic, researchers had ample time on their hands to study the effects of technology in our society. We had a huge wave of kids who were born and are now being raised on technology as the outside air was considered dangerous. Then you have kids who were already pretty grown and well into socializing who were forced inside during pivotal moments in social growth and maturing. Now more than ever cell phones were allowed at the dinner table and parents had no complaint because they were on them too. With this sudden change and shift to technology, the structure of performance was bound to change among Americans. So as I highlighted previously someone had to document it and they sure did. However, this next study was done primarily on the youth as most were at home and on some cellular device for the hours they were up.
Data #1
Researchers at UCONN and multiple different Spanish institutions first found out many students were under unmeasurable and incomparable stress that varied from school to school. Their findings were then published in the Journal for Environmental Research and public health. They found that social media usage increased across all groups of adults (Anna Zarra Aldrich, 2022, pg. #1). The researchers see this as a form of social support when you lack the ability to physically see your friends and loved ones. These findings were in contrast to the bias many people believe when referencing social media usage. Most people believe it is all about comparing yourself to others online and spreading misinformation or propaganda. Which not to say this does not happen on social media but that is the loud minority of what people are on there for. “How social media is used can have impactful effects on mental health,” (Anna Zarra Aldrich, 2022, pg. #1). so it only makes sense that in these extremely stressful times, we would use social media in a more uplifting light. This pandemic highlighted that we need to make healthier habits and continue them well into a time were we are not majorly stressed (Anna Zarra Aldrich, 2022, pg. #1).
The researchers found that people were using apps like WhatsApp to stay connected with friends and family, and social media like YouTube and Instagram to learn new skills and keep active. As Covid was not only a time where we emotionally & mentally were hindered but we were also physically hindered. Gyms were closed and people were too afraid to go out and walk in the first couple of months. During the first wave in 2020, 70% of respondents reported their social media use increased as they opted to stay indoors (Anna Zarra Aldrich, 2022, pg. #1). 25% of respondents reported their social media usage stayed the same and did not specify if they considered themselves “high users” to begin with (Anna Zarra Aldrich, 2022, pg. #1). The most significant increases were in females and 18-24 year-olds. This increase in social media among the youth could be related to the fact their lives were disrupted by unprecedented times. The researchers say they are interested in continuing this study to better understand this pattern and why certain groups have suffered greater mental health problems during the pandemic despite most gravitating toward social media.
Analysis
This article reinforces that people were using the app to escape and communicate with those they love. The “distraction” in this article is the need to speak to family in troublesome times. People were calling aunts they had not spoken to in the pandemic just so they could have human interaction. People were grasping at anything to bring them back to normalcy and this includes talking to voices they would not normally.
The researchers' findings contrast with many of the negative ways social media is typically used in the US, spreading misinformation and encouraging people to compare themselves to carefully selected and curated images of others, damaging their self-esteem and creating unrealistic expectations. Instead, it is now almost a tool of survival. Using social media during this time could in a sense relieve the “covid depression” by giving you the chance to connect with loved ones.
The researchers say they are interested in developing stronger strategies and policies for healthy social media use to positively interact with each other when in-person interactions are not possible. This should be implemented and used way after the effects of covid are gone. Women have also tended to suffer more during the pandemic as they are left to care for dependents, and household responsibilities often disproportionately fall to them which is most likely a reason they turned to social media at high rates.
Data #2
Researchers first found out many students were under unmeasurable and incomparable stress that varied from school to school. This is because all their schools were different before the mass closure therefore the online schooling and stress were different. Impoverished schools had fewer resources ready at hand than their more fortunate counterparts (Drew P. Cingel, 2022, pg. 1). How is a teacher to teach when her kid has no laptop? The school cannot afford one and neither can his mom so what now? Our researchers looked through 1256 kids aged 14-16 and measured their feelings of “school satisfaction and success, social connection, mental health, and media use.” (Drew P. Cingel, 2022, pg. 1)
They also examine differences as a function of gender identity. Results demonstrate that school context, particularly in-person compared to virtual schooling, was related to higher school satisfaction and academic success, stronger feelings of social connection and inclusion, lower levels of anxiety and depression, and less problematic media use. Kids are overall better off when they are connected. Interestingly, adolescents did seem to use social media as a tool to support social connection when in hybrid or virtual school contexts, but these schools also reported higher rates of problematic social media use. This suggests that media use needs to be examined more carefully to understand its role as a potential protective mechanism for adolescents’ social connection and mental health. The negative effects are still there but positive uses did come to light during this study. These findings provide baseline information about how schools’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic may have created disparities among youth. These findings have implications for current school interventions(Drew P. Cingel, 2022, pg. 1).
In the final results of the study, our researchers examined how stressed individuals were. And what was clear is that certain students clearly faced more adversity than others. Adolescents who were virtual were reported to have done worse than their counterparts(Drew P. Cingel, 2022, pg. 1). These students were also equally not satisfied with the schooling they had received. When restricted from using social media they felt less socially connected and not included with their peers. But the researchers argue social media could never make up for the loss of human interaction and merely acted as a placeholder(Drew P. Cingel, 2022, pg. 1). However these kids yearned for interaction so badly that they turned to negative social media usage just to garner attention. These kids would not go back to school like their counterparts which only further highlights the social and mental gaps which will soon face our school system.
Analysis
Right off the bat, this article highlights how not everyone is distracted when on social media and how not everyone is using it to connect. The data is not black and white but rather a messy soup of gray. The uses are too vague in this article as the research has found both instances to be correct. Some people are using social media to disconnect. Some people are also using social media for its core intention of being social when circumstances forbid you.
Some of the kids are using social media in a negative way and others are using it in a positive way. The main point of focus is that social media is their means of interaction. While it may never replace the face-to-face interaction it is the next best thing these kids have. And who knows, maybe without it they could have ended up worse. They could have been outside causing problems for society. Instead, they are harmlessly typing behind a screen.
Data #3
Social media did not suddenly boom during the global pandemic. There have been trends of its popularity and growth for years and I want to highlight how it has grown in the past 5 years. In today's world social media is used by more than two-thirds of all internet users. That is a lot of people. Facebook is in the lead for users with a whopping 2.4 billion users and Youtube and Whatsapp trail behind it (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, 2019, pg. 1). Keep in mind an estimated 3.5 billion people have and use regular access to the internet. Social media is used by 1 out of every three people in the world! The usage varies from finding partners to accessing information from the news and organizing political change (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, 2019, pg. 1).
In 2018 social media jumped to such an extent that adults 18 to 29 were more likely to receive news from a social media platform than the actual news. This trend even follows other countries with equal or high GDP in comparison to the USA. Adult social media usage was about 5% in 2005 and in 2019 it jumped to a whopping 79% (Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, 2019, pg. 1). The rise and spread of social media are so fast it is comparable to the diffusion of technology. They go almost hand in hand.
Then in another linking study, researchers examined psychological stress and social media use. Here it was found that the negative social media aspects are still around (Keith Hampton, 2015, pg. 1). However, this article does still highlight the importance and good it can do. This good is mainly among people who are college-educated and married (Keith Hampton, 2015, pg. 1). Basically people who have good lives so they feel no need to put themselves or others down as a need to boost-self esteem and self-image. This study also found women are more stressed than men due to societal pressures and this is another factor that pushes them towards social media usage.
Analysis
These two articles highlight the trend that social media is used through a multitude of stressful times, not just circa 2020-2021. I was on the rise before and for good reasons. Technology was on the rise as well where important political events were happening daily and people needed information.
Data #4/Analysis
The last piece of literature I want to look at is the song This is America by Childish Gambino. This is where the idea and notion came from that people use music, trends, and social media to distract themselves. The son came out in the middle of 2018 which was a near-perfect time for Donald Glover to drop. With the revival of BLM and the continuation of unjust black killings, Donald set the tone and spoke his truth. The video starts out with the artist dancing and singing his song. It starts off with happy cheerful “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, go away.” Then we have a beat drop where more dancers and instruments are brought in. Donald signifies the beat drop as he shoots a man in the head. Now the beat of the song follows a pacing heart rate. The video progressively turns to chaos.
Most of the dancers are teenagers in school uniforms to represent our society. The kids dance to the song in what appears to be an unimaginably large warehouse. As the video continues forward we see instances of lootings, car fires, and crowds running engulf the background. Then Donald brings in a choir and guns them down with an AR-15 to represent those massacred in churches due to strict gun laws in our country. The video continues and everyone is back to dancing but now more chaos is in the background. The video has a gray and red haze as multiple items are on fire. Cops and SWAT members are chasing after civilians. Men are riding on white horseback. Brawls are happening all while Donald and the kids dance in a circle. The video closes out as Donald sparks a joint and dances on top of a car as the man he shot at the beginning of the video is resurrected and playing the guitar. Then it fades to black and fades back in to show Donald being savagely chased by the crowd he had previously danced around.
Donald Glover made the video to represent the silencing of those who are going through traumatic events and why the country, especially African American needs breaks. That is what the choir singing and dancing is meant to represent. We need distractions to get by in life. Otherwise, we may die like all the other bystanders in the video
Now when it comes to the lyrics they hold an even deeper meaning. The opening is meant to signify unity through its usage of choir singing. Next, we have the lines “We just want to party…We just want the money.” This is meant to represent the partying and money-hungry attitude expressed by most Americans. It is a line about our lives and how we want to be more carefree rather than stressing about our life. Then after Donald kills the man he says “This is America.” and proceeds to give the gun to a child who then folds it in a red cloth. This is believed to represent how Republicans value gun rights over the life of humans. Lastly, one of the heavy-hitting lyrics is “America, I just checked my following list… You mothafuckers owe me.” Donald says this to really drive home the point that everything the American people go through is adding up. This really drives the reason why we dance and sing. We are doing it to pass the time until we are paid our dues.
Research questions
Now that I have presented multiple articles all explaining how social media is used I want to tie it back into something.
For the purpose of my research, I will look at the years ranging from 2018-2022. This is so I can get a general idea and collect data from times people can confidently recall. During these times, a lot of severe and significant events happened.
With these times being so hard, people will need some sort of outlet, right? The events I presented were just half of what happened. The United States of America has been facing political strife for quite some time. Political polarization has become a significant issue that often leads to conflicts. Times are stressful, so I want to see what people do to destress. What trends and Social Media were on the rise this time? What trends were teenage girls doing in their rooms to drown out the noise?
With the timeline I have presented on major events that have happened and the facts I have brought together. I want to inform you of where this is leading. I have a hunch people may use social media as a distraction from the real world. Most people our age are extremely bad at dealing with intense social and emotional settings. We have conditioned one another to plug in when we are angry rather than to express ourselves. Kids do not want to deal with political strife and socio-economic problems because they are a lot. Today's political issues are as severe and intense as arguably the attitude right after Jim Crow. People hate their neighbors because they came from somewhere else, are too dark, or do not speak English. Before these racist emotions used to be hidden and passive-aggressive but now they are just back to being aggressive and not even hiding their white hoods. When you think of these issues it is no wonder everyone in the sixties and seventies were high all the time. They needed something to hide away from the bullshit. They needed a distraction. So I want to look and see what members of society ranging from 15-23 have been doing to distract themselves for the past several years to escape. Do modern-day people use social media as a distraction from the outside world?
Conclusions
Previously I have stated social media is a form of distraction. I want to take that back simply because I believe that carries a negative connotation to it and while social media can be negative it can be so much more.
As I was at the TLU SAFE cord ceremony I realized something pivotal that I was overlooking so allow my testimony to end this paper.
Social Media is more than a distraction. It is a tool for people to use so they can feel safe. Some people walk around in life never feeling safe or as if they do not belong. Social media is the one place everyone belongs and everyone can find their ingroup. No matter your race and no matter your sexuality you can fit in. For the people that do not feel comfortable riding the train station at night in fear of what men will do to them. Social media is your safe space. For the people too afraid to wear their drag makeup home from the club home. Social media is your safe space. To the brave men and women who love who they love and do it ever so broadly. Social media is your safe space. At times it may feel as if the world has given up and cannot protect you but I promise to turn to the sky, take a deep breath, open up that app, and click with who you want.
Social media has been and will always be a haven for those who do not belong, for those who want to be seen, and for those who yearn to be heard. So I had no right to chalk it up as a mere distraction when in fact it was the survival of our species.
The data above presents that social media usage does in fact rise in times of extreme stress. This is true on the national scale but is even further highlighted on the personal side. We see this with the studies on COVID. Sure the other articles need more work to prove a causation over a correlation of advancing times. But the depression and loneliness highlighted during the pandemic were directly patched by social interaction over social media.
Limitations
Data #1
“The researchers say they are interested in continuing this study to better understand this pattern and why certain groups have suffered greater mental health problems during the pandemic despite most gravitating toward social media.”
“The research team has received approval to continue the study for a third year. They are hopeful that their results could help pave the way for the development of interventions to help people use social media in a more positive way that facilitates social support and connectivity, and engagement in healthy behaviors.”
Data #2
This study only documents one moment in time and is entirely self-report by adolescent volunteers
This study was conducted online, yet again forcing youth to utilize technology without the context of social connection to answer the questions.
Although the sample is diverse, it is not nationally-representative, and therefore, it is not clear how these findings might generalize to all American adolescents.
Data #3
There is no true way to track active accounts as some people might have more than one account.
Early forms of social media are loose in definition so it is hard to say what was the first form and what percentage of adults used that unpopular one.
Digital media is in everlasting competition with other forms of media.
Future studies
Data #1
Their original study was not specifically on social media, they just realized they had gotten enough information to conduct a secondary research that had enough merit to get published.
Data #2
Expand the study into a wider range of ages who still participate in school
The data from this study can and should be used to support adolescents in rebuilding social connection post-pandemic, and can encourage policy makers to recognize the critical need for social connections for all adolescents
Data #3
Do a study with a wider range of ages
Citations
Cingel, D. P., Lauricella, A. R., Taylor, L. B., Stevens, H. R., Coyne, S. M., & Wartella, E. (n.d.). U.S. adolescents’ attitudes toward school, social connection, media use, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Differences as a function of gender identity and school context. PLOS ONE. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0276737
Genius. (n.d.). Childish Gambino. Genius. https://genius.com/artists/Childish-gambino
Hampton, K., Rainie, L., Lu, W., Shin, I., & Purcell, K. (2019, December 31). Psychological stress and social media use. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/01/15/psychological-stress-and-social-media-use-2/
Jessica McBride, P. (2022, June 23). Finding social support through social media during COVID lockdowns. UConn Today. https://today.uconn.edu/2022/06/finding-social-support-through-social-media-during-covid-lockdowns/#
Ortiz-Ospina, E., & Roser, M. (2023, March 20). The rise of Social Media. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media
