Disappointment Looks Different This Time Around
The New York Times
In 2016, social media was awash in calls to protest the day after Donald J. Trump’s victory. On Wednesday, many said it seemed like business as usual.
“My feed feels like a funeral,” Julie Mayer, 35, said on Wednesday afternoon, before Vice President Kamala Harris made her speech conceding the election to President-elect Donald J. Trump.
Ms. Mayer, a lawyer in Philadelphia, said the online reaction to the election results felt different from the last time Mr. Trump won the presidency. Though many of the key elements are the same — a female Democratic nominee losing to Mr. Trump — Ms. Mayer said that many of the other Democrats she follows on social media seemed to be experiencing a “stunned, quiet and somber feeling” rather than the “frenzied shock” of 2016.
“Last time around there was the immediate call to action” Ms. Mayer said, referring to the Women’s March, the mass demonstration that took place the day after Inauguration Day in 2017 but had its planning begin as the 2016 election results rolled in. “This time around, it’s sort of just a resigned feeling.”
In interviews, multiple social media users said they were surprised by how quiet their feeds seemed on Wednesday, with some users posting the sorts of things they would share on a typical day: Brands advertised sales and new arrivals, influencers uploaded sponsored content and friends and family shared photos of everyday life.
Social media algorithms can place users in small bubbles of online content, making what one person sees on their feed vastly different from what another person sees. But some who remember the anti-Trump protests in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election — many of which were organized online or at least amplified there — say calls to action seem curiously absent on social media.
Sierra, a 30-year-old who lives in Washington and spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, said she ran out of Instagram stories to watch, which was not the norm for her feed. “It feels as though people are in a waiting pattern for some clarity — waiting for someone to tell them what to do,” she said.
