Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is calling it quits on Facebook, giving up or cutting back on social media in an act of self-discipline that the millennial congresswoman called “kind of a big deal.”
Social media vacation
Appearing on Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery,” Ocasio-Cortez said she has stopped using Facebook altogether, while limiting her time on social media outlets like Instagram and Twitter.
“I personally gave up Facebook, which was kind of a big deal because I started my campaign on Facebook. And Facebook was my primary digital organizing tool for a very long time. I gave up on it,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who is also called AOC by her progressive fans.
The freshman legislator ran a grassroots primary campaign in 2018 by advertising almost entirely on social media. “If yard signs are considered a traditional marker of electoral enthusiasm, tweets are their new equivalent – and Ocasio-Cortez built a large following on social media, and had many enthusiastic supporters online,” wrote City and State’s Grace Seger.
However, AOC is now backing away from the tool that took her to the top. “Social media poses a public health risk to everybody,” she said.
“There are amplified impacts for young people, particularly children under the age of 3, with screen time. But I think it has a lot of effects on older people. I think it has effects on everybody. Increased isolation, depression, anxiety, addiction, escapism,” AOC said.
“I’ve started to kind of impose little rules on myself,” she explained. “Like every once in a while, you’ll see me hop on Twitter on the weekends, but for the most part, I take consumption of content, when it comes to consumption and reading, I take the weekends off. And so I’m not, like, scrolling through trying to read everything online that journalists are writing on weekends. I try to do that during the workweek.”
Bad press
There is no shortage of biographical content for AOC to consume on the internet. Although much of this press coverage has been negative, the congresswoman hasn’t done herself any favors by refusing to answer serious press inquiries.
For instance, Ocasio-Cortez was furious after the New York Post ran a story in February questioning her residency. Rather than respond to numerous emails and telephone calls from the Post, however, AOC saved her disparaging response for Twitter, where she roasted conservative news outlets for failing to get the story right.
“My actual point of concern is that the congresswoman has yet to address these claims appropriately to members of the press,” New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay said on MSNBC’s The Beat. “There is traditionally a very important relationship between members of the media, including the [New York] Post, and elected officials. That’s something that they could have dealt with privately, and she could have at least responded to a press inquiry.”
Troll-in-chief
But Ocasio-Cortez has favored using social media platforms to wage her political battles. Yet, in AOC’s opinion, what’s good for the goose isn’t necessarily good for the gander; she spent the better half of her podcast interview slamming President Donald Trump’s use of Twitter.
The Democratic-socialist slammed a recent tweet from the president calling out Rep. Ilhan Omar for referring dismissively to 9/11 as “some people did something.” “If a lot of people tweeted that, perhaps Twitter would’ve taken the tweet down as targeted harassment,” Ocasio-Cortez surmised. “But perhaps they don’t want to show their hand, because they could single-handedly cut the president’s power by 30 to 50 percent overnight if they banned President Trump from the platform. That’s his bully pulpit.”
Yet, AOC continues to use social media platforms to savage her own political foes — including the president. In March, for instance, the congresswoman deceptively referred to Trump’s executive order calling for improved vetting procedures a “Muslim ban.”
Earlier this month, AOC used Twitter to call on Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), an Afghanistan war hero who wears an eye patch due to a combat injury, to “do something” regarding domestic terrorists, after he criticized Omar’s 9/11 comment. She also called into question the Purple Heart recipient’s commitment to 9/11 survivors.
Americans will be better off if Ocasio-Cortez takes a long vacation from social media altogether. But with the 2020 campaign season right around the corner, don’t expect the millennial to stop tweeting.
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