{"id":9180,"date":"2021-01-25T12:59:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T17:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/though-not-especially-productive-in-passing-bills-the-116th-congress-set-new-marks-for-social-media-use\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T23:43:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T04:43:47","slug":"though-not-especially-productive-in-passing-bills-the-116th-congress-set-new-marks-for-social-media-use","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2021\/01\/25\/though-not-especially-productive-in-passing-bills-the-116th-congress-set-new-marks-for-social-media-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Though not especially productive in passing bills, the 116th Congress set new marks for social media use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The just-concluded 116th Congress wasn\u2019t especially productive<\/a> in terms of the number of substantive bills it passed during its two years in office. But it set several records for lawmakers\u2019 use of social media, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Members<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Voting members of the 116th Congress collectively produced more than 2.2 million tweets and Facebook posts in 2019 and 2020. That means the median member of Congress produced more than 3,000 posts across their profiles on the two social media platforms during this span.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, the 116th Congress produced roughly 738,000 more social media posts than the 114th Congress of 2015-2016<\/a>, the first one for which the Center has data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of Congress use social media for a variety of reasons \u2013 from sharing news and information<\/a> to communicating with constituents and others about their views on important issues<\/a> and real-world events<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How we did this<\/div>