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.
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?
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).