Stanisland Magazine

Social media sustains a system of broken politics thanks to short attention spans

Last updated: 12th July 2025

‘Here today, gone tomorrow’ is a proverb familiar to us all—and in most cases, I am referring, of course, to a spectrum of content available on social media.

Like an infinite canvas, our stories are catapulted from reality into code and beyond. These digital narratives form blocks of euphoric experiences, carefully curated by algorithmic roadmaps. But the catch is, we are not in control of what we post or of our minds.

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But what happens when a trend is no longer trending and the alleged magic withers? The aftermath of a social cause and how it will be received can fall into decline, thanks to short attention spans and the wand-shaking of Silicon Valley executives.

Trends Are Used To Farm Your Attention

Remember the peace and love movement of the 1960s/1970s? Well, you probably don’t remember—nor do we—but it vanished as quickly as it started. This is because it was swiftly commodified, printed onto t-shirts, lunch boxes, and more. The same continues today, albeit with a difference. As soon as a cause is converted to an intellectual property, its philosophy ceases to hold the same momentum.

Social media is the modern lunchbox, swallowing much of what is ‘exposed’ into its coded menu, publishing diluted purpose over a sustained period, mangled by the cogs of its attention-depleted users who quickly scramble to entertain their shrinking dopamine receptors. That includes us.

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While the question ‘What happens once the trend has passed?’ cannot be answered, we can look to examples of campaigns that ran their course in the eyes of social media. These include the plight of the Rohingya, the genocide of Uyghur Muslims, victims of terrorism, and soon perhaps, the Israeli encroachment on Palestinian land. What about slavery in the chocolate trade, the rights of the Congolese, Rwandan genocide survivors and a potential new conflict in Bosnia?

The world is selectively outraged, and this selectivity is akin to violence itself. To be popular, not only must the principles of trends fit politically with philosophically pleasing interests, but they must also align with those who control the confines of social media’s thresholds.

Fleeting Political Tools

Once a trend has passed, how do we manage what is most important to us? Or perhaps the better question is: was it important to us at all? Were we subdued by a blast of short-form visuals?

We are all newcomers to the bright lights of social media, unchallenged until we self-discharge. The consequences of trends are that social media’s ineptitude fails to yield any sort of quality. This is largely due to a lust for 15 minutes of fame, intrigue, and low-quality stardom, wedged between innumerable grades of low-effort material.

Trends have always existed, but the problem today is that they’re quickly and briefly acknowledged by lawmakers and discarded as fast as voters lose interest. Which, in the long run, is incredibly damaging for the rights of all. The ugly truth is, we do it to ourselves.

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