The readings for this week made me realize that social media plays a huge role in politics today. We have all witnessed this especially in this generation. We all witnessed Donald Trump use twitter as a way to address the public. There are a lot of pros and cons when it comes to social media and politics. During the 2016 presidential campaign social media was used heavily. I believe that politicians now use social media because in today’s society everyone uses the media to interact with each other. It is easier to access news via social media websites such as twitter, or your cellphone in general.
In the article Cell Phones, Social Media and Campaign 2014, the writer includes a lot of statistics that prove that people use their cellphones and social media to access news and gain knowledge with campaigns. The writer includes statistics such as “28% of registered voters have used their cell phone in this way during the 2014 campaign, up from 13% in 2010.” Another statistic is Some 40% of voters ages 30-49 have used their cell phone to follow this year’s election campaign (up from 15% in 2010) and 21% follow political figures on social media (up from just 6% in 2010).
My favorite reading is Pithy, Mean and Powerful: How Donald Trump Mastered Twitter for 2016. This articles talks about Trump and how he abuses social media and uses it to bully people and opposing politicians. Trump has mastered twitter and he uses it as a way to address things instead of actually talking directly to the public, in person. In my opinion, there should be a limit on what presidents can and cannot post because the things that Trump posts are detrimental to society and if a president can bully people online, what example is that setting out to people?
