In an era where a single post can spark a global conversation, social media has become a dominant force in the distribution of information, affecting news, politics, culture and business. The rise of social media began in 2004 when MySpace became the first platform to reach one million active monthly users.
Within a decade, all major platforms, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and TikTok (formerly Musical.ly), were established. What began as a personal website used to connect with a community of friends has evolved into a marketing force As social media continues to evolve, its influence is expanding.
EVOLUTION OF MARKETING
Social media’s expansion has paved the way for the evolution of marketing. As the media landscape shifts, the methods to reach consumers are rapidly changing in order to most effectively carry news and culture, sell products and build community. Columbus Dispatch political writer Hailey BeMiller described the changes in the news industry.
“We have to sort of constantly evolve how we’re thinking about things to get the information that people need, whether it’s new ways of telling stories, or new social media platforms, or just kind of rethinking it. Because the way we’ve always [marketed news] isn’t necessarily the right way to do it today,” BeMiller said.
Many companies have redirected their budgets from traditional television commercials to platforms like Instagram and TikTok to more effectively reach viewers. IB Psychology teacher Christopher Savage provides his observation.
“They [marketers] have to shift their advertising dollars, probably to other areas that they never thought they would have to because that is where [the consumer’s] eyes are,” Savage said.
Before the digital age, there were fewer advertising channels, so marketers had to create products and commercials for broad audiences.
“Companies advertised directly to kids on channels like Nickelodeon for sugary cereals,” History teacher Adele Vergis said.
Instead of seeing a few products broadly marketed on one platform, social media now presents content targeted directly to the individual. This content plays to desires and targets specific fears, usually stemming from ideals of beauty and success, while promoting products that claim to have a solution. This can influence buyer behavior by both causing and tapping into consumers’ anxieties.
Today, Gen Z has more control over the media than other generations did in their youth, which has created new methods of communication through a combination of images and words that allow for rapid circulation of information.
“We had telephones, obviously, but it wasn’t the same. No one carried around a phone. You all carry around a computer, so it is a little bit different as to how you all communicate and directly influence each other,” Savage said.
Much of the content in circulation is both created and consumed by Gen Z, generating a sort of cyclical spread of ideas. Senior Logan Magliery is one Gen Z creator who creates predominantly for her peers. She is the social media manager for @genearthmovement on Instagram, and she posts content to inform Gen Z about topics concerning the environment. She strives to balance creating informative content with easy-to-read, engaging content.
“I try to do a balance of having very information-dense posts, which I usually do about once a week. Those are important because that is where people are going to get a lot of the information they need. But they’re maybe not the most exciting or interesting. And then, usually, once a week, we do a more fun post, like a little quote or a statistic or something that will grab people’s attention,” Magliery said.
Social media provides a more accessible and digestible way of consuming information. Instead of having to search for news by reading a newspaper or watching “five o’clock evening television shows that would describe celebrity drama,” as Vergis described, opening social media out of boredom often results in the involuntary consumption of news, political, cultural and everything else.
Many posts are slideshows that emphasize graphic design: bullet points, colors and pictures. Gen Z favors this type of content because it’s entertaining and allows for rapid consumption of information.
“When [young people] see small pieces of knowledge on the internet, they might be drawn to that because they are looking for that information,” Magliery said.
Although information is easy to find, it can sometimes be inaccurate. Disinformation – deliberately false information spread with the intent to deceive – in the media can be well-disguised. While it’s often easy to detect inaccuracy, a lack of context may make it difficult to determine whether something is true or false.
“I think that it’s a lot easier for me, with a certain amount of background knowledge about world events, to interact with unfiltered news videos in an educated way than a 13-year-old student,” Vergis said. These differing levels of background knowledge can impact the information people encounter online, especially since social media, while capable of spreading valuable and endless content, requires scrolling with careful scrutiny.
“It’s an opportunity to educate people in a new way, and I think it’s an opportunity that people should be taking advantage of, but at the same time, I think that people need to be aware that the information they’re seeing might not always be true,” Magliery said.
2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
The 2024 presidential election is approaching, with candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris facing head-to-head. Both the former president and vice president have accounts with millions of followers promoting their campaigns across platforms. Through social media and the campaign marketing teams, they’re able to connect directly with voters.
This election is noteworthy for Gen Z specifically because many members are eligible to vote for the first time. Due to the fact that young people are a prominent voice on social media, many marketers target them.
For example, @kamalahq on TikTok has 4.1 million followers and is the official account promoting the Kamala Harris presidential campaign in a way that attempts to speak to young voters and people following digital trends.
The account recently posted a video of Harris captioned “Vice President Harris’ message to Gen Z,” in which she claims, “You [Gen Z] are one of the reasons that I am so optimistic and excited about the future of our country.” This effort to connect directly with young voters is also reflected in the accounts overall approach. @kamalahq often uses humorous and trendy videos to capture TikTok’s audience.
One of their most popular videos got 1.8 million likes and features a popular motif: a colorful picture of dolphins jumping out of the ocean with a rainbow in the background posted to the song “Symphony” by Zara Larson. Captioned “Donald Trump’s project 2025 is a threat to our democracy,” this is a popular trend in which the same picture of dolphins is posted with a blatantly plain statement. Teenagers — and many others who use social media — have also become accustomed to and resonate with short content that tells a story or conveys a point in an engaging and fun manner. Junior Bella Anderson commented on this image.
“I don’t think it’s going to change anybody’s minds, but it might give them a good laugh and make them think that you’re more relatable,” Anderson said.
Artificial intelligence is another factor that has recently gained traction, and many people have been worried about it in relation to the upcoming election. The possibility of fake images generated by AI and the harm they could cause has been a concern.
As it turns out, however, much of the AI images in circulation associated with politics have been seen as far more ludicrous than concerning.
With over 135 million followers across platforms, Donald Trump has a significant online presence and has posted AI-generated content. An AI generated video posted on the former president’s X account shows him and Elon Musk — two of the most influential men in the world currently — dancing to “Stayin’ Alive” by the BeeGees. The post got 56 million views.
An image he did not create but reposted on TruthSocial (A social media platform he owns) features him on a large lion, captioned “There is only one candidate who can Make America Great Again!” sophomore Emmett Kelly shared his opinion on this picture.
“I think that looks stupid… it looks really silly,” Kelly said.
Trump and the original creators of this photo and other AI-generated images he’s reposted have both made it clear that these photos are intended to be taken as satire.
Social media allows for the fast spread of images and memes, and as a result, has opened a new door for unconventional content—such as AI-generated images—to spread. It allows political messages to be delivered in humorous and satirical ways, something that likely wouldn’t exist in traditional media.
REACHING THE PUBLIC
As candidates use social media to engage with voters, the nature of political communication continues to evolve. There’s a fine line between large-scale campaign strategies and personal engagement.
Allison Russo is the Minority Leader of the Ohio House of Representatives, and she is gearing up for the November election by continuing to foster and expand her social media presence.
“You’ll see me posting a blog on X, specifically calling out things in the legislature or other elected officials,” Russo said.
Social media has made sharing opinions and information easier and faster. Russo mentioned that she enjoys the transparency that comes with social media platforms.
“You get to show more of your authentic self to your constituents,” Russo said.
For example, everything on Russo’s Instagram page features a short caption in addition to the photo she posts. The caption is catchy under some posts, with others using emojis and hashtags. The caption under the picture is where people, including candidates, are able to personalize their posts.
Russo’s presence on social media has amassed a following of over 6,000 combined followers across platforms, and she is looking for ways to reach a broader audience.
“[Campaigning for elections] is always changing. What may work in this 2024 cycle may not work in 2026,” Russo said.
The growth mindset Russo has adopted in finding new ways to market herself allows her to stay open to innovative ideas. As more of Gen Z reaches voting age, her constituency—and those of other candidates—is evolving along with social media and marketing strategies, increasing the difficulty and urgency of finding ways to successfully reach the generation.
“Though we are trying, I don’t think anyone has quite figured out the best way to reach young voters,” Russo said.
Both Harris and Trump are using paid content creators and influencers to drive engagement, sometimes at the expense of traditional media. This large community of creators are considered a part of the campaign team.
Around 200 influencers were invited to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) — which took place in August — as speakers and to report on the convention. Unlike traditional news sources, content creators are working for the campaign and are paid to present specific talking points.
Pam Gray-Mason, a community activist and delegate for Ohio at the DNC, spoke about her experience with the media at the convention.
“You cannot even imagine all the media sources that were there,” Gray-Mason said.
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and a Japanese network both interviewed Gray-Mason on separate days. She also saw other news stations like CNN and MSNBC, in addition to the influencers.
“Everybody wanted a story… it border-lined competitiveness. So, your quality, the quality of reporting, was elevated. You had plenty of celeb news media people, even just in the audience,” Gray-Mason said.
Gray-Mason found that bringing in influencers elevated the competitiveness of journalism at the convention without causing an overall negative impact.
“I think social media, from what I was exposed to, was very positive and very upbeat about the event, the nominees, the presenters and the people that came out every night,” Gray-Mason said.
Bringing in influencers might not have directly caused international exposure, but it brought in other media sources that shared news of the DNC internationally.
“I can’t even tell you how much media was there. It was a strong presence, and actually, having been interviewed by [a group] outside of the United States, I think that the DNC was actually a convention looked at internationally,” Gray-Mason said.
The extra information shared online by influencers at the event and the heightened coverage from news sources beyond social media was the marketing strategy Gray-Mason emphasized most at the DNC.
“I think it was very strategic, at a very short notice, to make it sellable because I’m sure they had a record number of people watching on TV, as well as all of us being there in person,” she said.
The unexpected use of social media influenced Gray-Mason’s overall impression of the event. She found that the coverage from various media outlets made the convention more of a strategic marketing initiative than an event to address controversial ideas, as it had been intended in the past.
“I think the whole Democratic National Convention was a show… I said this for the five days I was there – ‘I really wonder what this would look like if there was some opposition.’ I feel like it would be a different tone… even when it came down to the roll call for Kamala, it was for a show because everybody was going to nominate her, but they got the opportunity to… give it some type of pep and hype,” Grey-Mason said.
Rumors surrounding the convention spread quickly, especially due to the increased media coverage of the event. Gray-Mason recognized this effect of social media having a presence through influencers, but she also drew her own conclusions from the event. Gray-Mason’s observations of the event came down to two significant questions.
How close should you get to candidates? Is there a viable balance between getting to know a candidate and maintaining a degree of security and privacy?
GEN Z
Younger generations are constantly on the receiving end of media consumption — elevated today by smartphones — but social media also presents an opportunity to generate output, whether personal branding, activism or information. The creation of social media has been a monumental development and has forced rapid adaptation for many, but young people have essentially grown up surrounded by it. A large number of Gen Z have personal social media accounts. Not solely limited to a local community and friends as it was in the early stages — a personal page may reach a larger following and connect to people all across the globe.
Social media enables the outreach of content to a wider audience, enabling students like Magliery to maintain accounts to share and educate people about what they care about.
“I think young people know that we are growing up in a world where we will have to face environmental problems, so when we educate young people about what they can do, it helps them know what their role will be in our changing world,” Magliery said.
Social media’s accessibility to everyone makes it easier to send broad messages to a targeted group of people. Generation Earth Movement has surpassed 1,000 followers on Instagram, making it more possible to educate peers through marketing their cause on social media. The endless possibilities of online content allow individuals the opportunity to represent themselves.
For example, high schoolers today use social media to aid in college sports recruitment. Aspiring college athletes can create accounts to showcase their ability to college coaches. Senior Gabe Hamilton uses his account @gabehamiltontrack to post about his training and the improvements he has made since the end of his junior year.
“My times from the end of my junior year in at least the 110-meter hurdles weren’t as good as they could have been. So, I try to instead show videos of how good my form has become and me training over the summer to show that I have improved and that my athletic ability has gotten better,” Hamilton said.
Social media is an opportunity for one to frame their strengths and present themselves in a particular way, which can be beneficial—especially in the context of sports recruitment.
College coaches can also look on social media to see game highlights or personal best times, and it can be beneficial for the athletes as college coaches can reach out to them via their social media.
“Wittenberg, Miami of Ohio and UNC Wilmington have all contacted me through social media at one point, either because they saw my videos or someone told them about my social media account,” Hamilton said.
Although not all people have sports-centered accounts, almost all teenagers have personal social media accounts. While most teenagers aim to share their lives with their friends, some have made a rise to fame through their social media accounts.
Since more people are experiencing a rise to fame through (often niche) accounts, companies no longer solely look towards celebrities to promote their products.
“For the most part, it all [used to be] about celebrities, maybe athletes, movie stars and whatever else. Now they have to broaden their scope as to who they believe is the marketable personality,” Savage said.
Now, anyone can become famous. It just takes a click of a button and an appealing personality. Savage says that to go viral and make a career out of a social media account, one has to have a lively personality and post consistently.
“Having that dynamic personality that a lot of people are going to want to follow [is necessary]. Or, unfortunately, a lot of people who are physically attractive are more apt to be followed. And then also, if you do something consistently, you want to put the content forth constantly. It’s got to be a combination of a bunch of those things,” Savage said.
Regarding content consumption, it’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole of an enigmatic algorithm curated to reflect a consumer’s values and interests.
Savage said, “We like to know that we are right and that others agree with us, so we kind of look for that commonality amongst other things. A lot of people look for news or more content that fits our personal belief system already.”
“A lot of us have these opinions, and a lot of times… [they are] influenced by our parents, by our teachers, by our coaches. And then we kind of look for areas to support those things,” Savage continued.
The “mirror effect” of social media, which reflects and reinforces a consumer’s existing beliefs, can intensify their opinions and create polarized interactions. The lens through which a consumer views content on social media is largely up to them. Because content is essentially endless online, absorbing many different opinions can be effortless, but without any desire to view diverse beliefs, it’s easy to fall into the echo chamber of pre-existing beliefs.
As Vergis said, “being very online is sort of an echo chamber in and of itself. The echo chamber of the online experience might be siloing you into one mindset.”
In the era of news and media we’re living in, social media companies do have codes of conduct, but the discretion on what to post is mostly up to the users. Facebook’s policy, for example, ensures that any hate speech, bullying, or harassment is removed. YouTube also has a policy against violent videos.
“We might see that direct marketing declines as social media companies try to control more of what people use them for…we might have just lived through, like a wild west, era of direct marketing, and it could be changing,” Vergis said.
The amount of information online is growing. The job of influencers, candidates and anyone with an online presence is to market themselves and products across platforms, and the job of consumers is to view and purchase. This dynamic offers politicians, athletes and any person online the power to create and consume endless content, which can be both powerful and dangerous.
