Final answer:
Social media has become a powerful tool for promoting positive social change, facilitating political engagement, and generating social capital across various demographic groups. However, it also presents risks like spread of fake news and enabling extremist groups, which lawmakers are striving to address.
Step-by-step explanation:
The relationship between social media and positive social change is multifaceted and dynamic. Social media platforms have become a tool for activism, democratization, and the generation of social capital. For example, campaigns like the Arab Spring, #MeToo, and Black Lives Matter have utilized social media to garner support and spread their messages worldwide. Additionally, individual efforts such as McKenna Pope's gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven petition highlight that social media can empower individuals to challenge societal norms and initiate change.
Moreover, social media has shown its capacity to facilitate political engagement and produce social capital, with information seeking on social networking sites positively predicted to enhance civic and political participatory behaviors as indicated by Homero Gil de Zúñiga and colleagues. Social media's role is not confined to the youth, as studies have found that it enhances political engagement in Nigerian university students and provides different types of social capital for users over the age of 65.
Nonetheless, the relationship between social media and positive social change is not without its complexities. While it provides a platform for constructive community engagements and democratization, it also presents risks such as the spread of fake news, the rise of extremist groups, and the creation of deepfakes. Lawmakers are therefore confronted with the challenge of minimizing these risks while preserving the democratic capacity of social media platforms.