Someone posted it electoral card. “All Greece is blue,” they wrote, with an asterisk instead of pink. Rhodopes. Others uploaded memes about it PASOK, comparing it to an athlete celebrating a victory in third place on the podium. Many have published initial analyzes. “Nine years later, we are at the beginning of a political correction,” he wrote in facebook Statis KalivasProfessor of Political Science, Gladstone Chair at the University of Oxford. “Tonight, a simple analog has rotted and a repeat is not expected,” he noted in the same environment. Christos Demetisjournalist.

Hours later, when the results of the May 21 elections became known, social media attention shifted to the opposition. “This is the end SYRIZA; he will retire Alexis Tsipras? – there are some questions. Many Facebook accounts and Twitter they began to write what the people decided on the basis of the economy, while the same argument was painted as reasonable or as disappointing, depending on the political orientation of the writers.

On the part of the population, dissatisfied with the results of the elections, the reaction to social were not homogeneous. V Instagram, several people reposted a photo of 20/20mag, on which instead of an exit poll, exit Greece was written on a black background. The 128 comments below the photo summarized many of the arguments circulating on social media from Sunday evening. Some have commented that there is no escape, they must leave the country. Others that they won’t feel sorry for anyone who voted New Democracy and that they are ashamed of the decline of the people. Some pointed out that other left-wing party leaders were to blame for the result. Many were talking about the scam that was the second trend on Twitter yesterday afternoon.

Tempi has also been much discussed. post from her Elena Akrita with the percentage of parties in the municipality of Tempi – “Ta Tempi 43-24. 57 dead. Temples,” he wrote – rebroadcast hundreds of times on Facebook. “Shame, great shame,” some wrote. Not for the post of Miss Akrita. to the vote of the citizens.

Negative climate

“Voters staying at home can use social media to protest the status quo, not motivated to vote for an alternative.”

One of the reasons many were so surprised by the election results is that in recent years, sentiment has seemed negative on several Greek social media sites for both the government and the prime minister. Kyriakos Mitsotakis. But this mood did not reflect electorally, reminding of the distance between the digital and physical worlds.

“More investigation needed” Kevin Featherstone tells K.Professor of Modern Greek Studies and Director of the Hellenic Observatory at the London School of Economics. “Voters at home can use social media to protest the status quo, not motivated to vote for an alternative—this could explain the large number of people who didn’t bother to vote,” he notes.

“There are a lot of facts that appear on social networks,” Vasiliki Georgiadu reports “K”., professor of political science at Panteio. Often they can be at odds with “experienced reality,” he says, noting the spiral of silence theory. “In the eyes of the public, an image is formed that describes reality in a certain way – when this description seems too self-sufficient, those who do not agree with how reality is presented hide their opinion,” he explains. He notes that this may help us understand why the image that appeared on social media was strongly debunked.

There are also echo chambers, online spaces where those who agree with each other mostly navigate, eventually seeing them as more expanded than they really are. “In chats, TikTok, Instagram and FB categories dissolve, and their users come looking for personal contacts and confirmation that we are safe – the truth in what is being formed on the Internet may not be, but it does not cease to be true. present, happened, indicated in “K” Honorary Professor of Sociology at the Pantheon, Konstantinos Koskinas. Accordingly, the reality created in our minds is a form of imaginary echo chamber, the result of both our physical and digital environments.

Although he argues that social media played a different role — “not everyone reads the same way and not all media played the same role” — he believes that the messages of the opposition, SYRIZA, but not only, were negative, it was a “humiliation”, he emphasizes . “People don’t listen to it, they don’t just listen to slander,” he says, “people want to have a positive suggestion on how to live their lives and their future.” He notes that the reaction that has spread on social media has not turned into a proposal. “He couldn’t capture the imagination of the 21st century voter,” concludes Mr. Koskinas, “even for a lifetime.”