I figured I would do more of a political post today after the social media world is abuzz today after last night’s final presidential debate. No, I will not be espousing my political opinions, since this is not a political blog, even though lately I wish I had a political blog to share more of my views beyond Facebook. No, I wanted to talk in general about how the presidential election process has evolved in regards to the public and how we share and consume information now on social media and our smartphones.
This election and the 2008 election really involved the use of social media, which had been a relatively new venue of spreading the word in political campaigns. I think this election has been the most social media-active thus far. I created a Twitter over the summer to finally see what the hype was about, but I just use it to follow politics and my favorite celebrities. If I don’t check up on my Twitter app on my phone for a few days, I come back to more tweets than I could possibly want or have the time to go through. The presidential candidate I am voting for has been tweeting a lot to help voters become the most informed and up to date on what is going on in the election.
In regards to my personal individual use of social media and my smartphone, I have become very interested and passionate about this election. I have been sharing information I find important on my Facebook and have been making my voice heard. I check my CNN news app every day and have shared election-related news articles on Facebook. I also have had quite a few political conversations with friends via text, and have shared a lot of articles with my boyfriend, who shares the same views as I, via apps and the Internet through text messaging.
I have also viewed several political videos via my phone during this election, whereas I otherwise rarely watch videos on my phone. I even watched part of the beginning of the third debate via the CNN app on my phone because I wasn’t at home for the first 10-15 minutes. This I thought was really handy, especially for individuals who may not have cable.
The ability to watch the debate anywhere if you don’t have immediate access to a TV or laptop is definitely a huge plus in the evolving world of technology. Granted, the video wasn’t the best and the picture went out a few times, leaving me with just the sound, but I think that was due to being in a moving car going through varied signal areas.
This election is definitely the most social media, Internet, and smartphone-connected election thus far. Which I feel says a lot about how much technology has evolved and how there are so many more channels of information out there to keep voters more informed than ever.
