> It wasn't so much "idealism" than it was the fact that social media was directly responsible for the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the US's first Black president.
That's a very strong claim, hence needs strong evidence to be taken seriously.
I can't cite sources since it would involve trying to piecemeal together tons of almost 20 year old Twitter posts (the ones that are still even online in some capacity). But I'd strongly encourage anyone interested to research both the 2008 campaigns of Barack Obama and the late John McCain. Obama went hard into social media like FB and Twitter with almost daily updates, and also used those platforms to directly connect with voters. McCain's campaign, if I remember right, largely stayed off of them until right before the election. And even then, McCain/Palin only used it like an RSS feed and really didn't engage with anyone.
It's the same strategy that propelled Bernie Sanders to the national stage in 2015/2016. It's the same strategy that got Donald Trump elected, legitimately or otherwise, both in 2016 and 2024. No one wanted to touch it until it made both Trump become POTUS and made a Clinton lose an election.
That's a very strong claim, hence needs strong evidence to be taken seriously.