Social Media, Internet, and Memes Through the Lens of Political Geography

Abstract

Almost four billion people in the world use the internet which includes forms of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, etc. Along with the gifts of such developed communication technologies, many hardships and future problems have emerged. Misinformation leaks, internet trolls, and the newer trend of cyber-nationalism all come with these advanced forms of technology. The purpose of this paper is to define what these negative consequences mean for us, and what our government is doing with this new power. To be able to grasp a scope of what is happening, the history of the internet and cyber-nationalism need to be distinguished as well as showing different forms of use and how they affect us in our daily lives. Looking through the eyes of a political geographer it is important to see if cyber-nationalism deserves its own category yet as a topic of study, and how this is similar or different to the use of propaganda in the past such as World War II. This paper concludes with final thoughts on the internet and cyber-nationalism, and future research possibilities that help to interpret the use of cyber-nationalism and further its study.