Editor's note: All opinions, columns and letters reflect the views of the individual writer and not necessarily those of the IDS or its staffers.
I’ve been thinking about social media lately. Specifically, I have been thinking about how, when things around the world happen, it almost instantaneously appears on our phones. For better or worse, our world is almost entirely dependent on this immediate transfer of information.
Social media can connect us, educate us and give us a platform to speak, but it can also be a weapon, used to divide and manipulate. How do we operate in a world where there is so much division? Does social media really connect us or does it create further division? How do we confront the problems our nation is facing?
These were the questions in the back of my mind when I was given an unusual assignment in my “Teaching in a Pluralistic Society” class: attend an event related to a culture outside my own and write a reflection. I say “unusual” because rarely does a paper involve me doing anything other than retreating to a corner in Wells Library, where I scroll on TikTok until the dread of the assignment is overwhelmed by the anxiety of potentially having a late paper.
So, when I was scrolling through IU’s events page, one lecture immediately caught my eye: a guest talk by Noriko Akiyama, a senior political reporter from Japan’s second-largest newspaper. Her topic was media, politics and gender in Japan.
As a student journalist, I was intrigued. I went, and it was worth it.
Akiyama’s lecture was not just a fascinating deep dive into Japanese media but also a look at her current research project. She explained she is traveling across the United States studying civics education. She began in Texas after the state’s Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 3979 into law, legislation restricting how teachers can discuss controversial issues in K–12 classrooms. There, she was told about Indiana University’s own situation: our state government cutting majors, reducing university funding and the IU administration’s controversial approach to dealing with student protests in spring 2024. In Akiyama’s own words, with these policies in place, "Education and democracy are at risk."
Akiyama isnt the only person to find these recent events troubling. Just last Tuesday,
Indiana University became the “worst public university in the country” for fostering and protecting free speech on campus, according to a national First Amendment organization that ranks universities annually.
In her lecture, she explained that Japan is undergoing a period of political upheaval. The Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power almost continuously since World War II, just lost its majority in the Upper House this July. Political corruption scandals have weakened public trust, and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, a member of the party, recently resigned after just one year in office.
Meanwhile, Sanseito, a right-wing political party founded during the COVID-19 pandemic, has steadily grown in popularity. Much of its momentum stems from an aggressive use of social media, which has helped party members disseminate anti-foreigner rhetoric and, Akiyama said, misinformation on a large scale.
I wanted to know more. And Akiyama, for her part, wanted to hear a student’s perspective. Later that week, we sat down for a conversation.
As she described Sanseito’s rise, I couldn’t help but notice disturbing similarities between the party’s rhetoric and the political language I’ve heard in the United States. Its exclusionary policies blame foreigners for Japan’s rising crime rate, struggling job market, and housing crisis. Even the main slogan, “Japan First” sounded eerily similar to America’s “Make America Great Again.”
When I asked if she saw these connections too, she replied simply: “Lots of connections.” She then asked me if I had “heard what had happened to Charlie Kirk.”
This conversation took place the day immediately following Kirk’s assassination while he was hosting an event on a college campus in Orem, Utah.
She showed me a Japanese article reporting Kirk, the founder of the American youth conservative group Turning Point USA, had recently traveled to Japan and spoken at a Sanseito rally. The international ties between these movements suddenly felt very real.
I asked Akiyama what universities can do to keep students safe and engaged during times of political tension. Her answer was simple but powerful: “Unite and create community. Collective power is significant, not just among students, but among everyone. You must create unity.”
She added that protests are a natural part of campus life.
“Students will always do these things, because they are students,” she said. “The university administration should give a lot of space to students to act. If [the university] must interfere, they should do so minimally; students must be able to act and have a voice.”
We cannot allow the violent actions of a few to divide us; we have to find a better way to discuss our differences without losing sight of our own humanity and the humanity of others. College campuses are supposed to be sacred grounds for the free exchange of ideas, where it is up to the listener to evaluate the validity of ideas and determine for themselves whether those ideas were worth debating or entertaining.
Social media can be a tool for organizing, education and resistance, but it is also a breeding ground for misinformation, outrage and algorithms designed to reward conflict over conversation. Sensational headlines drown out thoughtful debate and outrage becomes the language we are most acquainted with. We cannot allow the loudest or most extreme voices, whether online or on campus, to divide us.
So, resist the urge to shut down conversation and instead lean into dialogue, not because every idea is equally valid but because we cannot solve problems we refuse to confront.
If we want to protect education, democracy and one another, we must hold ourselves accountable as students, citizens and participants in the digital town square. We must fight division not with more division, but with community, empathy and a commitment to seek truth together.
RelatedWelcome to Ask Ainsley: an advice column built by and for studentsIDS writer Ainsley Foster to start a student ran and focused advice column.
Ainsley Foster (she/her) is a senior studying elementary education and children’s mental health.
