The image, from Twitter picks up on the solid colours which showed up at the inauguration of Biden and Harris. The funny part of this image is of course Senator Bernie Sanders who came to the celebration with practically in mind, not fashion. Mind you, this isn’t his first rodeo and at his age I think we can give him a pass.

However, it’s interesting what captures the attention of those watching and what we saw is the power of digital tools and social media, for in moments images like this began popping up. There’s an upside to this which Senator Sanders took advantage of by printing his image on to T-shirts, selling them off and giving the money to Meals on Wheels.

Just as this captured the attention of many, and it was fun, this is also true of those who capture a sound bite and then use it in nefarious ways to attack individuals. So while this is fun, it shows how we need to be careful about what we pay attention to and repeat. Digital tools are very powerful. For example, poet Amanda Gorman’s Twitter account had a following of 20,000 people before the world heard her. At the end of the day, January 6, 2021 she had over 1 million followers including me.

But thanks to Bernie, we did get to have a few good laughs at the creative nature of social and digital platforms.