By Acadia Otlowski
During election time every four years, Facebook transforms from a place that promotes interactions with friends, to a place where nearly everyone is involved in politics. This once friendly place develops into a battleground. Friends spar friends in a battle of ideals and wits.
But is this heavy involvement in politics a positive or a negative? There is no doubt that this past election was the first election to use social media as its main platform. In previous years, social media was a nonfactor. Cell phones were not nearly as sophisticated, and Twitter had just been invented.
Even Facebook has turned into a place where political views are expressed and debates are held. Facebook is not known for news content or political content. On Facebook, debates become downright hostile and those who choose to broadcast their views are inevitably met with backlash of some sort.
This can come in the form of direct attacks on the person who expressed their support for a candidate or a view. These fights can become heated, ranging from friendly attacks to openly hostile content. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that these fights can ruin friendships, but it brings into the open ideas that may offend others and at least put some sort of damper on the relationship.
The point is, social media is creating an overload of politics that some people can find overwhelming. With so many different versions of the “truth”, those who might not necessarily be politically active may find themselves overwhelmed. It becomes hard to sort through what is truth and what is fiction. Those who are not well informed may make choices based on something that one of their friends writes, whether or not that statement is actually a fact.
Social media influenced the election far more than any other sphere or media. But with anyone being able to write their version of the “truth,” it is having a detrimental effect on those who are not well-informed on the topic. While some may buy into fictitious posts from others, still others will tune out what is being said, and attempt to ignore all politics. This either leads to uninformed voters, or those who will not vote at all.
This becomes a real problem when a majority of young people will not vote because they believe that politics are “stupid” or other views to that effect. Most of these young people make these decisions based on what they see their peers post on Facebook. This apathy towards voting and the system could have detrimental effects if it expands.
Posts in retaliation to the flood of political oriented posts on election night read to the effect of how many young people don’t want to hear about politics anymore. Facebook is less news oriented and more opinion based. What was once a topic that everyday people didn’t discuss on a public forum has become something that hundreds of people read on their news feed.
Social media has undoubtedly changed politics and sometimes it is not for the better. While Twitter is more news-based, Facebook has become a place where people fight for the sake of fighting. It causes an overload of opinion in a place where people are less selective about whose posts they can see. On Twitter, people choose to follow those who are politically active, and can simply not follow someone if there is something that they do not wish to read. Facebook is having a negative effect on politics because it has created an atmosphere where people feel as if they have no choice in reading about politics. This makes them make choices based on sources that may not be credible or create an environment where young people become apathetic because they are sick of being bombarded by such posts.