SOCIAL AND ANTISOCIAL MEDIA

For a while our Facebook account was out of order. It required the intervention of our son (a native in the world of social media) to figure out how to get it running again.

And now we’re not so certain that we’re better off than we were before. In truth, we’re not huge social media users. We have an Instagram account but rarely use it. Every couple of months we fool around with Tik-Tok. We don’t quite count LinkedIn in this group, as it’s far more professionally oriented in nature, and we’re heavy users of that service.

Since we tend to view most cultural phenomena through the lens of cities, counties and states, we’ve set about thinking about whether social media has been a force for good or for evil. And as is typical with these kinds of binary questions, our conclusion is that it’s some of both.

On the positive side, for example, we’ve been grateful for information about public emergencies, which can be communicated in real time. A couple of weeks ago, we found the following information on Facebook from the nearby city of Danbury, which indicated that “The State Cold Weather Protocol will be in effect tomorrow January 15, 2026 at 5;00 pm through Friday January 16, 26 at 12:00PM due to dangerously low temperatures and strong winds.” The post went on to list the City of Danbury Warming Centers for people who had no way to get out of the cold.

Pretty amazing, we think, for officials to be able to communicate to citizens the information they can use just when they need to use it.

Beyond that, social media can offer up live-streaming town halls. And even though these meetings can be tedious and sometimes antagonistic, this gives the residents of a community the opportunity to hear directly from their communities’ leaders, without having their comments filtered through the lens of the local television, newspaper or radio station.

We also see the use of social media outlets to recruit talent and boost tourism and small businesses.

Finally, social media offers residents the opportunity to make their feelings heard and to complain about potholes, slow service at city hall or argue against changes in zoning that may affect their lives. For communities that pay attention, this can allow a way to find out what some residents are thinking and tap a broader crowd than show up at town meetings.

Lest you think that we’re huge advocates of social media, you missed the idea that any article which has a section that begins with “on the positive” side is likely to lead to another series of paragraphs that begin with. “But on the negative side. . .” And here we go.

Our greatest concern is that the amount of incorrect information that is out on the internet can make civic leaders want to tear their hair out, as misinformation builds up from one resident to another until the sheer mass of falsehoods makes it appear to be the truth. Ultimately, this has the potential of diminishing the already low level of trust in government, and that doesn’t do a community any good.

Then too, functioning as an echo chamber, social media can encourage quick responses and distorted information, “undermining the potential for informed discourse and contributing to societal polarization,” as the California Resource Learning Network aptly put it.

We’d be surprised, in fact, if public sector staffers who are regularly exposed to uninformed comment, outright lies and online vitriol, don’t find it increasingly difficult to go to work each day. It’s only human nature to want to be appreciated, and to be unfairly attacked by the online voices is counterproductive for everyone concerned.

Even in times when natural disasters hit, and governments use social media to get out good information, this useful material can easily be buried beneath rumors and falsehoods about the nature of the calamity that can jam up social media sites in a way that is counterproductive.

Meanwhile, working in social media makes a government a great target for hackers, which means that there’s an ever-growing burden on an entity’s budget just to fend off the daily efforts to compromise city, county and state accounts.

Then there’s the digital divide that crops up for people who are uncomfortable with social media for privacy purposes, individuals who have not yet acclimated to the world of online communications and people with disabilities who are unable to navigate online material that frequently doesn’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.  

Finally, there can be some confusion between the social media posts that are put out by governments themselves and elected officials who may be simply stating a strong opinion and are not actually reporting official government information.

While many consultants to states and localities advise that they get out their messages through social media – particularly as the old-fashioned conduits like newspapers have faded, it’s critical that governments think their social media use through clearly, and not simply as an adjunct to other means of reaching the populace, that can be easily utilized because it's cheap.

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