Does Social Media Influence Public Opinion

Each year numerous amount of people become a social media user. The eMarketer website estimated that by 2019 “there will be around 2.77 billion social media users around the globe, up from 2.46 billion in 2017” (1). A great deal of those users utilizes social media to communicate their opinion to other users; as a matter of fact, these users might change their perspective a certain person might have on a topic. Social media is a marketing tool, therefore people utilize those social media platforms to pursue, and even manipulate the public to think in a certain way; hence, why social media can influence the public opinion.

The phenomenon call “mob mentality” plays an enormous role on why social media influences the public opinion. The oxford

However, these celebrities often are extremely vocal with their opinion and they abuse that power, in occasions in a positive way. Due to the enormous following celebrities have on social media, when they share their opinion online a majority of the public tend to comply with that opinion. Notably, back in 2007 Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama’s presidency played a tremendous role in the 2008 election results with over one million votes in favor of Barack Obama; certainly, celebrities can influence the public opinion. Moreover, celebrities and social media go hand in hand by cause of them posting their opinions on the different social media platforms that exist. Celebrities are not aware of the power they, and social media have on the public opinion; in other words, celebrities on social media are one of the main influencers on what view of a certain topic the public oblige

As Vivian Michaels states in her article, “A survey conducted by the Pew Center of Research showed that approximately 35% of people between 18 and 29 years used social media as their most reliable information source for the 2016 U.S. presidential election” (3). There is nothing wrong in using social media as your most reliable source of information, but you must be aware of all the misinformation and biased information supporters and influencers use to favored and manipulate the public opinion of their preferred candidate. The reason social media can influence a political opinion, or any other opinion of a certain topic is by cause of how easy it is to share and connect with people that have the same opinion as you; therefore, when the masses see how many “likes” or “shares” that opinion has, they will immediately believe that the opinion presented is the right