I’m a digital strategist, here’s why I’m worried about social media

The political figures who perform best on social media are also the most polarising, writes Josh Coupland

I’m a digital native who grew up as social media took hold. Old enough to remember a time at school before social media existed, but young enough to remember countless tales of fellow students being bullied, harassed and in some cases extorted online.  

But that doesn’t mean we should discount these platforms entirely. Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool to get your message heard and to share information when it feels like no one is listening. A large part of my job is helping people do exactly that by guiding them to use social media to connect with their audiences, and often bypass the traditional mainstream media. Used in moderation it can be such a great asset. 

The problem, for far too many of us, comes when our phones become glued to our hands, unable to concentrate on any task for more than 5 minutes. We can’t watch tv without a quick scroll on instagram first, or a quick bedtime peak at Tiktok turns into a doomscroll into the early hours.

For adults it’s up to us to make a choice about how we navigate the attention economy of social media. For myself, that means having a regular social media detox. But for under-16s, I can only imagine the stress of being a teenager now, with the whole world online and just a few taps away. They’re unable to log off for fear of missing out on whatever everyone else is talking about; locked-in by an algorithm that promotes content that’s often unsuitable and warps their perception and beliefs.Their feeds designed to promote instant gratification and validation. 

The Farage effect

An index published today by Knox Digital, where I am a director, shows that over the last year the most viewed politicians on Tiktok are those often considered the most polarising in UK Politics. Reform leader Nigel Farage is the best performing UK politician followed closely in second place by former Labour leader and now Your Party MP, Jeremy Corbyn. Other insurgent MPs also sit in the top 10, the anti-Israel Independent Alliance grouping’s Ayoub Khan features alongside Labour leftwingers Imran Hussain and Nadia Whittome, and Restore Britain’s leader Rupert Lowe. 

The latter has seen a major boost since the Makerfield by-election was called, with Restore Britain’s Tiktok engagement jumping 47 per cent. But it’s still behind Reform UK, who are outperforming Labour by 12x more viewers per post.

It’s not just about the politicians themselves either, but the content of their discussion. Immigration is such a strong topic on the platform that mentioning it in a post almost guarantees it will perform well. Our analysis shows that immigration based content gets 7x more views than local government content. 

Despite other issues dominating Westminster and the 24 hour news cycle, Tiktok remains a major hub for discussion on trans and LGBTQ rights. It is the most engaged with topic on UK political Tiktok, surpassing even immigration. 

What this tells us clearly is that bold, radical and often extreme content that avoids nuance or detail thrives on Tiktok in a way that clear and reasoned debate does not. The algorithms have no need to promote nuance when they rely on feeding you an echo chamber of your own thoughts to drive ever heavier engagement.

Removing under-16s from this environment is worth attempting. However, it will be extremely difficult to enforce on a tech literate younger audience. You only need to look at how teens escaped the claws of the online safety bill by using VPNs to access sites with relative ease. Legislation is needed, but more urgent is a culture shift amongst teens who must decide for themselves that they don’t want to be on these platforms – that social media is unfashionable. Something I can’t see happening anytime soon. 

Look across to Australia where a ban already exists for under-16s, but new polling shows that 60 per cent of teens are still using social media platforms despite legislation to stop them. 

Legislation simply can’t keep up with the pace of technological shift. Nor can they keep up with a teenager’s fear of missing out. So while the government’s plans are well intentioned and well meaning, unfortunately they are far less likely to have the intended impact.

Josh Coupland is director at Knox Digital