Social media has been a staple in people’s lives for a long time, since the early 2000s. People love social media for a variety of reasons. Just to give a few, it’s a place for creativity, socializing, making friends, making statements, or sharing your opinion. On social media, lots of people give out their personal opinions so they can debate with others or just because they feel the need to. But, some opinions on the internet or social media can sort of turn into a trend, if you get my meaning. If you don’t, what I mean is when someone posts something like their opinion and it gains traction and popularity, people might start to agree with them just because it’s popular and people are afraid to say otherwise. I strongly believe that social media influences others to believe something because it’s popular and the “right” opinion.
There are times when I also get influenced by public opinion when I’m researching something or I confirm a belief of mine about a piece of media through researching it. For example, I saw the Mufasa: The Lion King back in December. I heard some buzz about the film is not that good. Nonetheless, I went to see it with my family, and in my opinion, I found it to be rushed and boring. Though it was visually stunning, that didn’t save it from its rushed story, and padded runtime, and I was actually getting tired by the end of the movie which is something that I usually don’t do even if it’s not the best movie. After watching it, I looked up on my phone what other people thought and their thoughts were mostly the same, which “confirmed” my opinion. Another example I have of a time when I was influenced by public opinion was pretty recent with a video game that I liked but as I read the reviews, I started believing the audience to be right. The game is called Far Cry 6. In short, I really enjoyed the game despite knowing it’s MANY problems but I still enjoyed it. The public opinion is rather mixed about the game and I found myself slowly believing and listening to the negative reviews about the game.
A real example that I have of people believing the public opinion and them being objectively wrong about something (even though I know an opinion is an opinion) is with Crumbl Cookies. Assuming most of you know what Crumbl is (I don’t know where you’ve been if you haven’t), Crumbl has gained lots of popularity over the past year with their cookies that are extremely over-the-top with their designs and are straight sugar rushes. I’ve had Crumbl one time and it doesn’t deserve all the hype. They taste too sweet and too sugary, and it just ruins the cookie as a whole. Just like the point im trying to make, people tend to follow the trends on social media so they don’t seem “different”. To further prove my point that people let their opinions be decided by social media, a study was conducted by Dr. Micheal Workman. Workman stated, “We found that when people are seeking new information about a topic, that social media can change people’s minds.” He also stated that “But if they have already made up their minds on something, say politics or religion, they mostly seek out information to confirm what they already believe.”
To wrap it all up, I believe social media can indeed change our opinions or at least confirm our beliefs, given my personal experiences and studies shown. Social media is a big part of many people’s lives, and our opinions can be altered based on the popular opinion on something. For me, it’s happened many times where I believe something, and I feel like my opinion is either “wrong,” or I need to confirm my opinion by looking on social media. Or I just follow the crowd, which does happen sometimes, but I try not to let that happen. Either way, do you think social media brainwashes public opinion, or are people just too scared to have their own opinions?
