From the 45th United States President’s Twitter, to former President Roosevelt’s fireplace chat, the way a public figure communicates has been essential to the public to ensure democracy is at its best.

As junior Osvaldo Silvestre explained, “The way that President Trump communicates is unconventional, but it’s better than back then. After all, the age of social media is now.”

Looking back through time, the history of how United States Presidents have communicated to the public is an interesting one. From March 1933 to June 1944, former President Roosevelt addressed the American people via radio. He would speak on a variety of topics such as banking to unemployment, to even fighting fascism. These 30 speeches quickly became known as the fireside chats, despite the fact that he was not actually sitting beside a fireplace.

As junior Erick Villalobos stated, “It would be better if they [Presidents] had meetings, so they can tell the public what was going on without exposing too much.”

Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.

— President Obama (@POTUS44) May 18, 2015

To give some context, the first President to utilize social media was actually the 44th United States President, Barack Obama. He was the the creator of the username POTUS, referring to the President of the United States.

While former President Obama was the first President to use social media, the most infamous user of social media to communicate is our current President. President Trump has been on television screens a multitude of times based solely on his tweets. From “covfefe,” to voicing his own personal opinion, President Trump definitely makes it his goal to always inform the public, for better or worse.

As Silvestre elaborates, “Social media is okay to have, but not the way Trump uses it. He uses it too much like a celebrity crying for attention.”