We say that we live in a ‘digital age’. 

We spend most of our free time on our phones, we work on our phones, we use our phones for just about everything we do.

This technology has become so ingrained in who we are it is increasingly difficult to separate them from our sense of ourselves. 

We trust our phones to tell us how much we moved, where to go, when to get up, when to go to sleep, how we slept. Our digital selves and our ‘real’ selves are becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between.

If we trust our phones to tell us who we are, why do we still seem to hesitate to let them tell us how to vote?

Why, in an age of digital dependence, do our politicians seem allergic to online campaigning?

The UK general election is today, and yet our Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP hopefuls have barely said a word online.

Not only is it a poor strategy, but it is ignorant.

In the interest of fairness, no single candidate will be picked on for their lack of social media skills, but together each one of them contributes to what becomes a dire situation.

The upcoming election will select our representative in Westminster’s Parliament; regardless of your opinions on this system it is impossible to ignore the significance of Westminster in our devolved political system.

Northern Ireland’s inclusion in the centre of UK politics is crucial; it is so important that we remind those at the top that we are still here.

It is crucial that Northern Ireland maintains its voice in Westminster. We are here, we still matter, and you must listen to what we have to say. These elections are important, so why is there such a lacklustre approach to online campaigning?

In no way is social media the only way to campaign. Traditional methods of canvassing and knocking on doors and proving a dedication to your constituency on the ground is crucial to engage certain voters.

But what is abandoned in ignoring the importance of social media? What about the huge number of expats who will vote by postal vote? What about frontline workers, full-time carers and individuals who work unsociable hours who may not be home when these politicians knock on their doors?

How are you expecting to engage with your potential voters if the only way you are trying to connect with them is the one time you stand on their doorstep?

As someone who is voting by proxy, this article was inspired by a genuine struggle to find out what each candidate is advocating for.

Naturally, my first move was to go to social media, expecting public feeds with curated graphics, clearly highlighted manifesto points and a feeling as if they want to be seen.

The reality was shockingly different. Some of our candidates don’t even have a social media presence, those that do either haven’t posted in at least a few months, and almost none of them suggest they are running to be an MP through their profiles.

In some cases, I had to contact party information bases to even find a way to contact their candidate.

You may think I am being dramatic, that I am young and too reliant on social media for all my information.

I have spent the past year studying for a Masters in political communication and rarely a day goes by without the significance of social media for the future of politics being emphasised, but the literature can be wrong, and academics can be out of touch, so I wouldn’t dare bore you with that.

But this is a UK election, and you better believe that the English politicians are not treating their social media with the same adversity.

Sunak and Starmer are acting like wannabe influencers by this point. Why does that recognition for the impact the internet can have not resonate across the Irish Sea?

The internet is a young person’s game, and politics is for the mature.

This is what we seem to believe: why waste your time on the silly little apps dominated by those not even old enough to cast a ballot?

How wrong that is.

As of 2023, some 78 per cent of people in Northern Ireland have a social media account they regularly use, with the average individual spending around two hours a day on social media.

And these are not the teenagers you think they are.

According to Instagram, the majority of their users are aged between 18-34.

These are voters, and they are building their lives around what they consume online. Why would politicians not try their very hardest to be in that consumption? 

I may be obsessed with social media, but I am far from the only one.

To our candidates, I say: your voters are closer than you think, you can engage with them right in their own homes, and your absence on our social media feeds screams of your ignorance to a large proportion of your voters.

Does social media still have such a stigma that we could never imagine legitimate politics occurring amid the latest hashtag trends?

Perhaps our candidates believe there is nothing to be gained by catering to social media, but 18-24 year olds had the lowest voter turnout in the 2019 general election.

These votes are up for grabs; if there is no effort to connect with them in a way they resonate with, how can you ever cast judgement on their hesitation to voting?

Without connection, there will never be true representation, and that is felt just as much as any policy.

Perhaps it is more than that. Perhaps our politicians refuse modern campaigning strategy because they refuse the need for campaigning?

Do we really believe that everyone in Fermanagh is so stuck in their politics that the individual candidate no longer matters?Are we all still blindly loyal to the parties we have always voted for that we simply no longer care for the individual elected to represent us?

Surely we cannot be that hopeless. Surely we cannot be that disengaged?

Emma Gallagher is a student from Enniskillen currently studying a Masters in Politics and Communication in London.