Modern Social Media From Alexis De Tocqueville Perspective

Democracy in America

Tocqueville's Democracy in America provided a useful interpretation of American and American values in the early to mid 19th century. As a Frenchman, Tocqueville became interested in applying the historic significance of the development of America and how it related to a larger frame of societal evolution. Freedom of the press and the ability to express discontent with the authority figures of society became an important theme for this author as he found it key to developing and sustaining healthy and worthwhile societies. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the applicability and validity of Tocquville's explicit and demonstrative support for a useful press in the present context of electronic and social media.

In today's world, social media and electronic communication has altered the methods of freedom of expression. Jacobson claimed in today's world" engagement through social platforms like Twitter and Facebook is getting in the way of our face-to-face engagements with friends and family "(par1). Democracy in America echoed this same sentiment. Tocqueville expressed the importance of honest and forthright discourse to solve the many complex problems that large groups of people living together need to solve. The press was a way to" rally the interests of the community around certain principles and draws up the creed of every party and affords a means of intercourse without ever having coming into immediate contact" (p22).

Social media today allows for this very same action amongst its users. In this sense, Tocquville would seem to support the constructs of this system being used today. Many relationships and important dialogue never reaches the spoken word in many cases today. Millions of Twitter messages and Facebook updates have replace the need to communicate on a more personal and human level. The technology of the 1800's used the newspaper and human conversation as a means to carry out discourse and arguments in their time. The means and methods of communication don't appear to matter if an appropriate message is being carried out and understood in the manner of its intent. This is evident in the amount of political written works that were published at this time.