How Politics is Changing in the Digital Age

Politics has changed a lot in the last ten years. Social media is now the main way people get their political news. This was not always the case. A few years ago, people still got their news from TV, newspapers, and in-person events. Now, things are different. There is so much content online that it is hard to pay attention to anything for very long. Social media is designed to keep people engaged. It does this by giving them small doses of pleasure chemicals in their brain. This is called dopamine. The more time people spend on social media, the more they need bigger and faster doses of dopamine to feel anything. Politicians have noticed this. They now try to make short videos and posts that make people feel strong emotions. These emotions can be good, bad, or ugly. The goal is to get people to pay attention. This is a problem for democracy. Democracy needs people to have long, thoughtful conversations. It needs people to listen to each other and try to understand different points of view. It needs people to work together to find solutions. But social media does not reward this kind of behavior. It rewards quick, emotional reactions.Some people think that young people are not interested in having these kinds of conversations. But this is not true. Young people are hungry for meaningful discussions. They want to talk to each other and learn from each other. They want to have conversations that are not driven by algorithms. At Colby College, there is a weekly event called \"In the News. \" Over 150 students show up every week to have a conversation with journalists, politicians, and policymakers. The students ask the questions. They disagree with each other. They listen to each other. And they do all of this without their phones. This shows that it is possible to have meaningful conversations in the digital age. We cannot compete with the internet. But we can create spaces where people can have real conversations. We can create spaces where people can learn from each other and work together to find solutions. We can create spaces where democracy can breathe.