Politics and Social Media

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https://napoleoncat.com/blog/social-media-memes/

Does Politics Belong on Social Media?

By: Tempestt Flaggs 

         An ongoing social divide in politics has recently stirred up a new question about how it is spread among the masses. Social media has taken over our lives since the 2000s and has continued to evolve with us in our everyday lives, including politics. There are people making arguments that social media is killing politics and scaring away voters. Other individuals say that it allows everyone to see what going on and what the biggest topics are. That leaves us with the question, Is social media ruining politics? What and what is it affecting? 

Before Social Media 

        Before the dinosaur age, there was these thing called newspapers, believe it or not. The newspaper provided the American people with recent news, games, and comedic entertainment. The newspaper was also an outlet to inform people of upcoming events. But one day someone said, "Why don't we put politics in the paper"? It seemed like a great idea because so many people utilized the newspapers to inform them of the recent event, so why wouldn't politics be one of the topics. So politics became a part of the newspaper no biggy.  Then publishers' and editors' personal opinions began to infect what was being published about politicians, allowing the comic section to enter the conversation. You have to keep in mind there were many different variations of newspaper, so depending on the area you lived in mediates what type of political information they receive. Meaning if your publisher is a Republican your newspaper was probably about the republican party with slander about the democratic party. This is when the number of people who participated in the voting, dropped drastically.

Start of Social Media

        Myspace was one of the first websites where individuals could post content about themselves and their thoughts. Then youtube made its debut, which started off with short videos usually something funny. Then there was Facebook, which made it easier for individuals to share day-to-day thoughts. Well, people started to become very popular by using these media sights. Giving politicians the bright idea to join in promoting themselves. Well just like the Newspaper political slander began to infect these social sights. With the power of algorithms, people began to only be exposed to limited amounts of political content. If you liked something that a democratic said the website would mainly generate more posts that compliment that specific party. Including slander about Republicans. This is when fake news started to become a real issue. People did not know what to believe about politicians anymore. Causing politics to take a bad reputation no matter what party you favored. Emotions started to run deep because many people we believing fake news outlets. When Donald Trump entered the political conversation on social media it started war.

Conclusion

    Please keep in mind this conclusion is my personal opinion on what I have witnessed and experienced as 23 year old. In my opinion, bringing politics to the media was not a bad idea. It could have been amazing to access reliable political information from a newspaper or social media. That would have been good only if people did not let their emotions ruin it. Elections became dirty and politicians are looking to slander each other, even if that means lying. We as Americans are letting our emotions get the best of us causing our politics to suffer. Scaring away our future voters. No one even likes to discuss politics because they fear it will become an argument instead of a debate. If media outlets published Legitimate information maybe people would be willing to read and shape their own opinion about politics. Maybe that would influence more of the youth to care about our country's political health. Yes, the jokes are funny but it causes unneeded tension. So before you share negative political content think twice.