Social media has transformed political campaigns, allowing political messages to spread unconventionally through AI-generated songs, trendy edits and posts making fun of politicians’ looks. Through social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and X, political parties have jumped on the viral bandwagon to influence the next generation of voters.
Political accounts such as TikTok’s “Democrats” and “The White House” try to replicate the humor of Gen Z, but their political messages often get warped or overshadowed by their trendy posts.
“The White House” account on TikTok recently posted an edit of immigrants being detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the song “Juno” by Sabrina Carpenter. The video featured a montage of arrests accompanied by the lyrics, “have you ever tried this one?”
“I thought that was really weird because those people [being arrested] were easily identified in the videos,” junior Sudha Kodem said.
This video received backlash from many viewers, including Carpenter herself.
“I think when there’s this clash between musicians and politicians,” junior Haley McMahon said. “It’s unwarranted and biased a lot of times, which just doesn’t help the spread of information and just causes more problems.”
There is a fine line between lighthearted, funny political posts and inappropriate, degrading ones.
“When it starts attacking a group of people who don’t have involvement in the joke, for example, when you take a group of people whose rights are being turned into a joke, I don’t think that’s fair,” Kodem said.
Some social media users think that politicians’ actions and duties are being overshadowed by their desire to appear funny and relatable to younger generations.
“Your job is not to be relatable,” senior Ava Marquis said. “Your job is to make laws and not to be cool.”
Marquis believes that political social media accounts should maintain a level of professionalism in addition to their humorous posts because many teenagers and young adults use social media to consume information and news.
“I feel like social media is here to stay,” Marquis said. “It’s not really going to go anywhere, so I don’t think it gives politicians too much power, but I think it gives them another platform that they have to kind of be cautious of what they’re saying.”
Tying in Gen Z humor with political messaging can be an effective way to shape young people’s political beliefs if done effectively.
“I think attention is reached better when they do a combination of entertainment that grabs your attention but also share something related to their campaign or related to their agenda that you can relate with,” McMahon said. “I think those emotional connections and the empathy that’s presented in those videos is what really helps bolster candidates into winning.”
Kodem pointed to the New York City mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani as an example of effective social media strategy to reach voters. According to BBC News, Mamdani’s social media videos led him and his left-wing policies to a surprising victory in New York City’s mayoral primary, and then in the November election.
“He was on talk shows that catered to Gen Z, but he was also in places that Gen X would be in,” Kodem said. “I thought that was a really good example of how you can use social media to outreach and connect.”
On the other hand, using trendy posts can result in the spread of misinformation.
“I think that a lot of political content gets boiled down to a headline, and that can be confusing if you don’t do your research,” Kodem said. “Also, sometimes these headlines are just wrong.”
Senior Mischa Rutledge also navigated misinformation on social media to make an informed decision when she voted for changes to the Texas Constitution in the fall of 2025.
“I go to the person who’s running [political social media account] because I feel like there can be a lot of misinformation on a personal page, but there they will talk a lot about their policies in quick, easily digestible formats,” Rutledge said.
Amid fake and exaggerated news, social media users can fact check the political information they see by communicating with older adults and reading a variety of credible news sources.
“I like to have conversations with my parents because they’re both involved in politics with their careers, so I think it’s important to kind of gauge how they feel on an issue so that I know how to form my opinion,” McMahon said. “I’m not allowed to vote yet, so I don’t have a clear decision on a lot of issues because there’s not a need to yet, but I think as a girl, it’s important to know what your stance is on certain issues.”
