It seems to me that since the rise of social media, politicians are voting in a way that's less representative of their constituents, not more. By that measure social media is bringing us farther from direct democracy, not closer.
> It seems to me that since the rise of social media, politicians are voting in a way that's less representative of their constituents, not more.
A consideration: Could it also be that the politicians are voting quite like before, it is just that social media made you much more aware of the fact that this voting behavior is not representative of the wishes of their voters?
I don't, but regardless the US doesn't seem very close to direct democracy to me. So I disagree with OP when they say we're getting a glimpse of what direct democracy looks like right now.
To clarify, I don't mean to say the US is looking like a direct democracy. I mean to say that maybe we can think of social media as a microcosm that shows what direct democracy might look like.
Topics going viral are sort of like issues coming up for a vote, and the result is that you see different consensuses emerge and different real world consequences (companies changing policies and making phony apologies for things, for example).
