One of the major draws of supporters to President Trump is his openness, largely facilitated by his use of social media. The number of twitter followers amassed by the president has allowed his blunt tweets to circulate the globe. And therein lies the problem with both the president’s tweets and the rise of social media.
A single tweet can be seen worldwide within milliseconds, but many people forget that their social media usage can be seen by people outside of their small online community. However, social medias should pay more attention to this, and the fact that President Trump seems just as unaware of this as a 13-year-old with their first Facebook account should be concerning to all.
Trump seems unaware that a single tweet he sends out to his intended audience of the United States can be viewed by people all over the world. With his overuse of Twitter, how can there be any confidence in his ability to keep confidential information confidential? How can the United States feel that they are protected under a man who lashes out at Meryl Streep when she recounted Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter early into the general election campaign season?
With Trump’s lack of awareness for the long-lasting impacts of his use of social media, one can only expect to see his tweets bring the United States into inevitable chaos. His lack of self monitoring can only indicate that one day he will release information too impulsively or improperly, and the government of the United States will be thrown into a whirlwind, forcing itself into a corner on policy that may not be the best course of action. Throughout his campaign, Trump claimed that the current policies within the United States government were giving terrorist groups such as ISIS too much time to prepare for United States’ retaliation. However, his inability to control his social media usage and presence encourages an image of Trump tweeting that the United States will bomb a location they believe to be housing ISIS officials, giving them a chance to leave the location and put other lives at risk.
The rise of social media has brought rapid change and effect, but within the structure of the United States and foreign interactions, rapid is not what we need. We need a president who is level-headed and doesn’t use social media to convey his instantaneous thoughts to a global audience. Hopefully, President Trump is different from Presidential Candidate Trump, but so far, we haven’t seen much of a difference between the president and a child with their first social media account.
