Writing’s Impact Through Social Media

“Despite its world-changing powers, writing has become so integrated into our lives that it can be hard to fully appreciate its historic and lasting importance. Like other taken-for-granted such as walking on two feet, finding north, living at a settled address, or telling the time, writing invites infrastructural neglect, but is full of wonder and mystery if we start to grasp the worlds it enables.” – John Durham Peters

I think this passage is integral to Peter’s argument that though we often think of media as environments, the reverse is just as true—environments are media. Writing as a medium has become so embedded in our daily lives that we aren’t truly seeing all the impact that it has on us as a society. I agree with Peters, writing has world-changing powers, and it is hard to pick apart all the historical importance that writing carries because it is so heavily integrated into our lives. This passage made me think of our current political state in America and the power that writing as a communication has, specifically through social media platforms. Social media has such a strong impact on how we as a society relay information and communicate, affecting our political state in ways we often overlook. We take for granted and underestimate the power writing has to create big changes, social media takes writing to a whole new level of widespread information.

Writing has the power to influence opinions and impact political campaigns, elections, movements, protests, etc. Writing through social media is such a normalized part of our everyday lives that we often are not reminded how important these forms of communication are, it can be almost too easy to write and post on Instagram or Facebook, we do not realize how quickly these writings can reach so many people and have impacts greater than we would have intended. It can be both a good and bad thing that writing has this much power, for example, movements, protests, unfiltered news, and constructive political change can come out of social media platforms. Writing is the cause of so many great political movements. On the other hand, misinformation, hate, polarization,n and more can be a result of social media being a dominant form of communication. Most of the information I receive about the political state of the U.S. is through social media, I can receive immediate information from multiple sources by scrolling on an app for a few minutes. It is so ingrained in us as a society that we cannot go about our day without checking social media to get information. We are all heavily influenced by social media, whether it is through articles, comments, videos, etc. Social media shapes our perceptions of reality.

Although I think it is hard to constantly remind oneself that writing has such an impact, I agree with Peters that we should start to grasp the worlds that writing enables. By taking a moment to acknowledge the impact writing has on our everyday lives, we can start seeing all the mystery and wonder it presents to us. Writing allows for self-expression, creativity, political change, knowledge, and understanding. When we truly reflect all writing can do, we are more likely to find the deeper complexities writing offers to our world. How does one do this though? How are we supposed to remind ourselves of the immense power writing has? How does it shift our perspectives on what is in front of us once we do?