Facebook means different things to different people. But one thing is sure – it’s not the animal it was in the beginning, and it is now shaping how we connect with each other and even how we vote. By Tony Watts OBE

A long-standing friend emailed me the other day to tell me that, with a heavy heart, he had de-friended me from Facebook. While he enjoyed my family pictures he didn’t want to keep seeing my political comments.

I can see his point. It’s been a bruising election campaign and I’ve been more guilty than most of sharing articles from newspapers and other online sources. I’m sure he has not been the only Facebook friend that I’ve annoyed. It might even be that some have quietly de-friended me and not let me know.

Conversely, I’ve enjoyed some very invigorating discussions about issues that matter to me and (I would hope) the nation; like the future of our economy, social care, public services… Quite a few friends of friends have actually friended me because they’ve liked what I’ve said and that’s been nice.

As much as I think Facebook is a great way to cheer each other up with holiday snaps, pictures of the great drinks and meals people are currently enjoying, new hair-dos, videos of cutesy cats and chubbly babies and so on, I happen to think Facebook is also a natural home for what we really care about.

“What’s on your mind” is the cue for a Facebook post. So for me, sometimes it’s a great track I’ve been listening to on Spotify and want to share with my music loving friends. Occasionally it’s despair at our latest national sporting failure. Quite a lot of effort goes into keeping up with memories of schooldays on the pages of my alma mater. But – at times – it will be my concern about a decision or statement by a politician or political party.

I don’t have any qualms at posting these – but hopefully in a “let’s chat about this” sort of way. Other people I’m on Facebook with have different preoccupations: animal welfare, veganism, cycling, running…

Look at the latest data coming out of the election and it’s plain to see that social media, Facebook in particular, played a big part in the result – primarily by galvanising the younger generation into thinking that their vote mattered and could swing the result. A bigger part, indeed, than the printed press.

You would assume, for instance, that everyone reading the Daily Mail would vote Conservative – after all, they were told to do so in pretty unvarnished terms by the newspaper’s editor. In fact, 17% of them rebelled and voted Labour. Again, the Mirror (despite being highly voluble in its left-wing views) failed to get that message across to 19% of readers who ticked the box marked “Conservative”.

The Independent was highly pro-Labour, but 15% of its readers jumped ship when they got to the voting booth, the same number as that which ignored the Express’s editorial line and voted Labour.

Even the Sun, which almost imploded with its animosity towards Jeremy Corbyn, conspicuously failed to make its case to 30% of its readers. And only half of its readers actually bothered to vote anyway.

Readers of printed media are, it seems, exercising far more freedom of choice than the press barons assume. But meanwhile, on social media, stories and opinion pieces (from all sides) that never appear in print are shared between friends – together with comments that question what the mainstream media are telling us.

It’s a brisk, brusque world… one that is now in the front line of political discussion. And it’s one of the reasons why the 2016 US election, the Brexit referendum and 2017 UK election did not go the way the pundits expected. People are expressing and sharing their views online – and swaying the way people vote.

Undoubtedly there are dangers to all of this. You can, for instance, be highly selective in the sources of information you receive on Facebook – and run the risk of living in a filtered bubble-like existence where you simply have your views and prejudices confirmed and amplified, not questioned.

But, if you’re prepared to keep an open mind and an open Facebook feed, and question sources before you pass material on, you might be surprised at the interesting discussions that you can have.

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