Effects of Social Networking on the 08 Election

Social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and blogs, have a huge impact on this years presidential election. These sites have influenced the election in a positive way, persuading as many people possible to vote and constantly reinforcing the fact that every vote counts. On Myspace, when users first log in, the home page is usually associated with the fall election and has advertisements about it everywhere. Also, there is a tab on MySpace specifically for the election, called “Election ’08.” On this site, there are daily polls, clips from the presidential debates, race coverage from NBC news, a way to register to vote, and other various tools. There are also users blogs posted about their opinions of the debates, candidates, and issues of the fall election. Also, users are able to post their own thoughts and opinions on their own personal profiles, which in turn exposes their thoughts and feelings about the elections to their network of friends. Facebook, on the other hand, is not as creative with the fall election as MySpace is, however users are still able to post their feelings towards the elections on their page. Since most college students are on Facebook as opposed to MySpace, the statements that the users post are effective and in turn start conversations on the election. Not only is the election represented visually, it is also represented verbally on both sites. With that in mind, the more users that go on MySpace and Facebook, the more people exposed to the presidential elections, and therefore the more people that vote.

Both MySpace and Facebook users can put whatever information they want on their pages, whether it be video, words, or photos. Looking at my friends’ profiles, without a doubt it is proven that these social networking sites have made an impact on voters, especially first time voters. For example, on Facebook, users can change their status messages and display how they’re feeling or what they’re doing. As soon as the first debate was over, people immediately changed their status messages to how they felt about the elections and how well of a job one candidate did or how horrible another did. This then started conversations between the users of Facebook as to whether they agreed or disagreed with each other and so on. The more images, messages, or videos people post, the more exposed the election becomes to everyone.

Social networking has mad it unbelievably fast for information, thoughts, and opinions to spread. Imagine a world without social networking. People would not be able to express their opinions as easily or freely to people halfway across the country. “Groups” of supporters of a particular candidate will not be able to be formed, advertisements would not influence over 35 million users, ages 18-21, of social network sites.

Professor Troy Murphy is one of the founders of MiVote. On this site, individuals, mostly students, can voice their opinion to anything. These topics range from the economy, gas prices, war, education, the candidates, or even share a personal story about how our future president will affect them, either positively or negatively. By accessing this website, users are able to view others opinions on issues that are important to them and hear both sides of the story. Overall, social networking has an enormous impact on the election, allowing individuals to express their feelings and influence others in doing so.