With the advent and introduction of social media in our day-to-day lives, it appeared inevitable that politics too, would be impacted by the medium. The political stage that many of our elected officials stand on now implement a form of outreach and community engagement through social media. Considering that every year, our country gains a new generation of voters who heavily use social media to communicate with the world around them, many young voters use their cellphones to track the status of many political campaigns. According to the Pew study performed in the article “Cell Phones, Social Media and Campaign 2014” older voters in the 30-49 demographic too use the convenience of social media to follow the political rumblings of the voting period. With no “clear partisan slant”, social media has changed the way that user receive information about politicians in a more balanced style of “reporting” in comparison to other mediums such as newspaper, tv news or radio as the free domain of the internet allows for a mix of representation shown in an often considered unreachable demographic. As stated in The role played by social media in political participation and electoral campaigns, “Social media has reshaped structures and methods of contemporary political communication by influencing the way politicians interact with citizens and each other.”
On the opposite end of the political spectrum, our current president elect has used social media as a way to push an often negative political agenda. His usage of language as well as terminology has been seen to create a rise in often neglected yet frowned upon political followings. Despite Barack Obama being the very first President in American history to use the @POTUS username on twitter, Donald Trump has changed the reputation associated with the once renowned and coveted username. During his campaign to office as mentioned in the New York Times Article, Pithy, Mean and Powerful: How Donald Trump Mastered Twitter for 2016, Trump use the site as a “tool of political promotion, distraction, score-settling and attack”, using the “140-character task that other candidates farm out to young staff members into a centerpiece of his campaign.” The negative use of the platform by one of the most powerful political seats in the world has encouraged the outpour of negative reactions from his party and constituents. I feel that even though most aspects of our day to day life involves some form of politics, the political arena doesn’t need the involvement of any kind of platform that has some sort of entertainment aspect to it.