Avengers of Diplomacy

So if you haven’t heard yet, three significant events have happened in January alone.

• Joe Biden is the 46th president of the United States.
• Donald Trump was banned on all major social media platforms because of his inciting rhetoric that led to the State Capitol’s riots in Washington, DC.
• People have been vocally crossed, on social media, about the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris across all platforms. This is due to their previous history with legalizing marijuana, universal healthcare, and trans rights.

Throughout this election process, starting in 2016, we have seen the very best and worst of social media; increases in hate speech, defamation, and frustrations worldwide. But what if we could use the accessibility of social media to re-establish who we are in all forms?

There are several ways to communicate via social media. You send birthday wishes via Facebook, chat with your favorite celebrities, get jobs via LinkedIn, and get fired from those jobs via Instagram. With eleven people joining every second, it’s safe to say that this is our way of life. And social media, like life, has its ups and downs.

Facebook, the same place where you congratulate your cousin on their new baby, is also the same place that sells your data for their interest. Twitter, the site where you can get roasted by Wendy’s, is the same place where Russian hackers used our personal information to disrupt the 2016 election.

And it hasn’t just happened with those platforms. All of them have/had issues regarding the spread of misinformation and hate speech, damaging the important ways we communicate ideas, opinions, and beliefs across the internet.

But as American citizens prepare for a new path to rebuilding and unification, brand identity is critical; social media is the best place to establish a new brand identity.

People felt forgotten, social media users jumped by more than 13% over the past year, and we use social media to find information. Through late 2015 and all of 2016, conservative think tanks and right-wing media sources began to flourish as their presence became more prominent; the 45th president used several of their talking points during his campaign and throughout his presidency.

These ideas based on immigration reform, LGBT+ rights, and healthcare, among other fundamental human issues, were combined with fearbaiting and the stakes of being forgotten.

Though most of the country is center-left, many Americans felt left out of the conversations; many issues described didn’t fall into the political atmosphere that these individuals couldn’t relate to. But these ideas soon became demonized, as the individual speaking ill of them soon began to represent an identity.

This led to many retreating online in Facebook Groups and chat forums to continue discussing their views, leading to groupthink and a bubble made for only them. These toxic communities’ propaganda led to over 125 incidents of violence and insurrection between 2016 and 2018, including the marches in Charlottesville to the violence in Washington, DC, in early 2021.

With a touch of a button, millions became exposed to a steady diet of inconsistencies that confirmed the same bias demonized and shunned by modern society, propped up and displayed in foreign nations. They represented who we were and how we handled societal issues.

However, knowing these facts doesn’t excuse nor dismiss the behaviors illustrated by these groups. Still, it allows us to establish common ground on several issues these individuals will find debatable or deny outright.

We’re living in an era where children are creating social justice movements.

People from all ways of life can now represent us in political atmospheres.

You can significantly control the stock market from one post on Reddit; we live in an era of instant gratification and patience.

So how do we go about rebuilding our image overseas?

In the digital age and instant information, we are the only source to re-establish our brand for years. By learning these newfound skills and unorthodox mediums across the vast internet, we will take a while to reinforce our county with new leadership.

A more stable administration is now up to a challenge for the ages.