Yesterday, one of my graduate students shared news articles with me that discussed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has announced she will be walking away from social media.
Earlier in the day, one of my undergrads came to office hours to update me on her social media account lock-out issue. Her account is still locked. We discussed her creating a new account (for class purposes). During this discussion she burst into tears. She lost her followers, she lost her ethos with the lock-out from this account and she’s really struggling to reconcile being cut off from a major component of her life.
And then,
And then, AOC publicly announced she would walk away from social media. A politician, whose campaign used social media effectively, who connected with constituents because digital citizenship and digital culture matter, is walking away. Meanwhile, my student cries because she can’t access her account. Because she is cut off from her cultural connection to those people who have supported her writing.
I know many will read the tears as addiction and withdrawal, but that misinterprets the identities we construct within these spaces. That undermines the strong ties users of social media can build. That undermines the subcultures that fly under the radar and produce beautiful writing, beautiful connections, beautiful support groups for all, but especially for women of color, for men of color, for disenfranchised people, for fandoms that we don’t share publicly, for so much more.
As we head into another American political cycle i’m interested in the ways social media bolsters citizenship, and the ways individuals recognize their digital citizenship practices. I’m really interested how this continues when the politicians we look up to for their effective social media use walk away. Will my student’s tears being further misinterpreted because public figures like AOC continue to walk away?
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