Has social media influenced your vote in the next US election?Interested in how, if at all, social media has played a role in influencing your vote.
So much of this most recent election cycle has taken place across the social web. Twitter and SocialMedian have created stand-alone political sites, Current TV combined Twitter and the televised debates, CNN is reading Facebook and Myspace mail from viewers during reports. How, if at all, has this influenced your vote? Jump onto Seemic and join the conversation or leave a comment here.
If you have not been influenced by social media during this election you were probably not on the internet, it was pervasive. From # facebook friends, # of subscribers on the youtube channel, to their own social networks, the links from twitter, quantitative analysis from blogs like http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ , to reports of vote rigging on twitter http://twittervotereport.com/ , and access to past and current media, enabling exposure of hypocrisy so many times. For me it made the election very real, very close, and very personal. Ironically and an Englishman in the US I can’t vote, but I call myself a citizen and patriot of the world
It hasn’t influenced my vote but seeing the political comments of some friends has influenced those friendships. It’s enlightened me to both the lack of effort some put into their vote and encouraged deeper discussion with others.
Last week on “This American Life”, one of the stories shared was a union guy in PA who learned in talking about the election that one of his long time friends harbored racist views. It really surprised and dismayed him.
Fortunately, I haven’t had the displeasure of contacts saying anything racist. However, I have read plenty of name calling, one dimensional portrayals, and thoughtless comments.
I’ve also lost some contacts after debate nights so I don’t doubt my political musings have affected how some view me as well.
Mykl, you’ve made me stay up past my bedtime and I have to work in a few hours!
I would say that my ideology is pretty strong and it would take the nomination of a complete anti-candidate to make me change my voting patterns. I sometimes vote for candidates in third parties that are adjacent to my voting pattern.
In addition, and I suspect that I’m among a large crowd who does so, I pretty much look for news, blogs, etc that fit my own views. I don’t have a ton of time, so my blogging is limited to
The term ‘Social’ media may be a slight misnomer (or I am all AFU, as we said in the service) - my impression of social would be more of a conversational setting on a site and the back-and-forth discussion drives the content. Sites like fivethirtyeight.com and crooksandliars.com allow users to make comments on the owners entries, but the main thrust of the site is the article. I also read electoral-vote.com, which is like fivethirtyeight, but not as heavy-hitting in the stats, but Tannenbaum gives a decent, even-handed, and relevant commentary to the day’s events.
Probably the most ’social’ sites I read are Twitter and Facebook — they both allow you to cut out the unwashed masses and also afford you the luxury of cutting out people whose opinions you don’t share (these groups may or not cross over!). While this is good in that I have an intense dislike for hate speech, I have about four friends who are of the opposite political persuasion who aren’t very vocal, so it also puts me in a friendly pond. This isn’t to say that people in my circles don’t throw the B.S. flag when they see it, but they’re probably going to be more forgiving.
That being said, probably the most important thing about Social Media is that it’s an an evolutionary step for media of enormous significance, probably the resurrection of the Fourth Estate. Any time today’s amazing and brilliant blog is taken over by the corporatocracy, a new indie one will gain relevance to take its place.
Mykl, I like the article you posted by Brian Solis (TechCrunch http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-social-prof.html) about the candidates using social media during the election and its potential to expand democracy (ie: bringing the White House into the 21st Century).
While he doesn’t come out and say it, the idea of RE-re-thinking politics back in the direction the Founders had envisioned is possible. By providing a medium for the nation to voice itself on each issue rather than prescribing to a party with a slate of platform issues, we have a better potential to move toward a true Democracy (the Founders didn’t exactly relish the idea of political parties).
Assuming things are done correctly, this could greatly enhance the role of the Executive and Legislative branches.
Hi there. I'm Mykl Roventine. I design things like web sites, user experiences and social media strategies. This is my personal blog (not affiliated with any employer or client) where I write about about web culture, design, coffee and music. More →
