From the candidates themselves to their vehement supporters to the sadistic journalists, the personalities involved in next Tuesday’s presidential election have made it the craziest election cycle that we have ever seen. And social media has amplified that impact.
When Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney four years ago, social media was already a dominant force in our modern society. Opinionated Americans were already standing on their online soap boxes to rant and disparage. Friends and family blocking each other online was not a rare occurrence. However, neither Obama nor Romney were nearly as polarizing as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both are. This election has moved from passive aggressive family “discussions” at holiday dinner tables to an ongoing online war of lies, hate, and obduracy.
Whether it be Clinton publicly tweeting to Trump and advising him to delete his account, Trump insensitively reminding the world how his policies could have prevented a tragedy after it occurs and while the nation mourns, the propaganda and click bait spreading across the Internet from media outlets on both sides of the spectrum, or the anger that divides Americans on a daily basis, I am sick of logging onto social media and being bombarded with this madness.
Social media is a wonderful tool that is supposed to bring people together in ways never done before. This election though, it has shown that it can also drive a whole nation apart in ways never done before. I’m not criticizing social media. I’m criticizing our inability to use it responsibly. We have to hold ourselves more accountable to what and how we post because it is a reflection of ourselves and our society and because it is the type of communication that defines this generation.
While I’m glad to see so many users, especially those from my disenfranchised generation, taking an active and conscious interest in our country’s future, the ways that they have expressed this interest is disheartening. The beauty of the freedom that the Internet gives us is that anyone can have an opinion and share it. However, we have lost sight of how to conduct ourselves and our discourse properly.
Throughout this semester, I have used this blog to voice my appreciation for social media and the ways that it has helped build up our society. We have this platform to share our views and our ideas with the world and the opportunity to connect directly with the politicians who we are electing. But with great power comes great responsibility. That platform can only be beneficial in creating a more civic society if all users rely on the truth and rationality as opposed to speaking and typing based on their emotions.
AJC
I am also tired of seeing all of the nonsense involving the election on all of my news feeds and timelines. I am at the point of where I just scroll past the posts instead of reading it and giving them any thought. Although the “discussions” have become full-fledged online wars, I think it is relieving to see that there is discussion at all. For so long, we have isolated ourselves into bubbles to only surround ourselves with people with the same opinion as ours. Thanks to the mute, unfollow and block button we have created a box for ourselves to only have to appeal to people who already agree with our views and opinions. With this election, it gives people a platform to lay out their views and potentially change people’s minds/introduce them to a new way of thinking. But you are completely right. We have to go about it in a mature and responsible way or it will be dismissed by our audience.