Maya Martin, Editor

Have you ever scrolled through TikTok and had a very radical political video pop up on your For You Page? Did that video strongly correlate with your political views, or did that video contrast your political beliefs?

TikTok, a social media platform in which users can post and interact with videos, is changing how we perceive the political world. One of the number one ways it does so is through increasing political polarization.

Polarization, according to Merriam-Webster, is the “division of two sharply distinct opposites.” So, political polarization refers to the increasing division between political beliefs, specifically enhancing the ideological extremes.

La Salle senior David O’Brien has noticed this for himself while using TikTok. “I’ve found that with TikTok use, videos have become more radical over time,” said O’Brien. “There really is no moderate take when it comes to the internet.”

When scrolling through social media, especially TikTok, many users have found that any political videos that show up on their For You Page often contain extreme political views whether they align or contradict their own political beliefs. For example, there are many videos that include a display of racist, sexist or homophobic behaviors and receive a lot of attention because of how radical they are.

Often, videos like this are placed on the For You Pages of TikTok users who find this behavior offensive. This may compel the users to leave disapproving comments and interact with the post, which in turn, gives the video more viewership, landing itself on the For You Page of other TikTok users. Additionally, because the original viewers interacted and watched the video, the TikTok algorithm will continue to place similar radical videos on their For You Pages.

On the other end of the spectrum, many political TikToks often are placed on For You Pages that align with a viewer’s beliefs and even influence their ideals to be more extreme or radical. By doing this, TikTok tries to captivate viewers with similar beliefs as a video displays so that they will interact with the video and continue to receive similar content on their For You Page.

“TikTok has also become a powerful means of spreading a political message, especially for politicians and campaigns seeking to connect with younger constituents,” according to Politico. “Biden’s 2020 campaign leveraged “influencers” posting on TikTok to explore his record on race, and political organizations are working with influencers to target voter groups.”

No matter which path TikTok takes to enhance your political beliefs, it has been working and escalating as time goes on. While TikTok leads some viewers to more extreme beliefs, this means an increasing shift in political views. Both Democrat and Republican TikTok and social media users are becoming more extreme as we know it.

Another way TikTok has the ability to enhance political beliefs is through the spreading of false information. Anyone can make a video on TikTok and share any information they would like, so users need to ask themselves, is the information I’m viewing really trustworthy or reliable? 

La Salle alumna Kylie McGovern studied this issue and wrote about it in her research paper for a former political science course. She stated, “Social media brought about dangerous consequences like the rapid and unprecedented spread of false information online through several channels including but not limited to foreign interference, accidental posting and spread of false information, and purposeful domestic posting and spread of false information.”

There is a wide range of possible repercussions social media has on politics. It can threaten society as we know it because of the negative effects political polarization causes, including a decrease in unity, more hostility amongst parties, and gridlock. According to the International Catalan Institution for Peace, “Polarization affects individual perceptions and is hard to reverse once in place.”

Because of the difficulties of reversing political polarization, it is important that TikTok– and all social media users– become aware of the matter.

“Personally, I don’t use TikTok because it feels dystopian and more of a distraction from what’s actually happening,” said McGovern. “I hope La Salle students are wiser than to consume politics from TikTok. I’d recommend something like NPR. They have informative podcasts that are usually a quick listen.”

As for the future of political polarization, there are a lot of questions on how social media will continue to impact politics. For now, it is important to use trustworthy news sources and to fact check information seen online, especially on TikTok.