Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Giving Her Congressional Colleagues A Twitter Crash Course

Many consider her a social media guru, and now she's going to help members of her party understand those platforms better. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will teach fellow House Democrats about Twitter and how to become more effective at using social media, according to USA Today on Wednesday.

On Thursday morning, the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee will hold a session on "the most effective ways to engage constituents on Twitter and the importance of digital storytelling," according to the report. And the "teachers" at this class will be none other than Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes.

The session could be welcomed by many people on social media who were stunned to see older lawmakers struggle to ask Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg simple questions about the social networking site in April 2018. In a statement to USA Today on Wednesday, Himes said, "The older generation of members and senators is pretty clueless on the social media platforms. It’s pretty clear that a lot of members have 25-year-olds in their offices [running their social media]."

While her older colleagues may have difficulty navigating bustling networks like Twitter and Facebook, Ocasio-Cortez has proven herself a star on social media. With snappy comebacks at her opponents on the Twitter — where she has millions of followers — and Instagram Live videos in which she cooks while talking politics, the 29-year-old Democrat is considered a social media pro by many people.

Perhaps one of the reasons why many people seem to love Ocasio-Cortez’s social media use is because of how she makes it look uncomplicated and effective. While Capitol Hill may seem like a far-away and inaccessible part of America for many people, Ocasio-Cortez has used her Instagram and other platforms to demystify American politics.

On Instagram, in addition to uploading photos of herself alongside her new colleagues, Ocasio-Cortez has got into how critical it is for a politician to be honest. In a statement to the Huffington Post, Ocasio-Cortez said, "I keep things raw and honest on here since I believe public servants do a disservice to our communities by pretending to be perfect. It makes things harder for others who aspire to run someday if they think they have to be superhuman before they even try."

Perhaps to drive the point home one more time, she shared the same quote on Instagram, too.

If you're wondering about the actual approach and philosophy behind Ocasio-Cortez's social media usage, you might want to check out what her communications director, Corbin Trent, told Rolling Stone in November, 2018.

According to Trent, Ocasio-Cortez's frankness on social media is supposed to "shed as much light on the process [of being a representative] and to be as open and transparent as possible, to give people an insight into what a freshman Congressperson is like, to give them some insight into what their government’s like, and hopefully make [politics] seem less foreign and unapproachable."

Now, with Ocasio-Cortez and Himes' help, House Democrats may get to relay the same kind of straightforwardness on their own accounts, to their own followers.