Politics 2.0

For Roosevelt it was radio, Kennedy had television, and Obama had social media. Needless to say, social media/networking has revolutionized the way people around the world communicate and has allowed for constant access to each other. The Internet created a new outlet for nearly every aspect of daily life. These new forms of communication via social networking are not just for connecting with old friends or posting pictures, the use of these sites provide a new world of potential connections of which politicians have recently grown akin to.

The most exemplary of this exact phenomenon is the campaigns of both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. These two opposing candidates differed in many ways of course, but specifically regarding media, they showed a large contrast in the effectiveness of online media and advertising in drawing attention of potential voters. Firstly, the actual tools both candidates used are very telling. Obama, in 2012, used tools such as Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Twitter (two accounts) and Spotify. By the looks of these tools alone you can see his target demorgraphic and the entire vibe of his presidential campaign.

Using a total of nine social media tools was unheard of before Obama, and because of that he connected the historical process of presidential election with the world of Web 2.0 that exists today. Obama’s campaign was more active and generated many more responses from users of these sites. It would be foolish to say that his social media use didn’t help him win the election that year. He posted 29 messages per day on average, had twice the amount of Facebook supporters on said posts, used almost double the tools as Romney, and on all fronts, definitely trumped Romney in the social media campaign sector.

Romney’s approach to social media tools for his campaign was slightly different to say the least. He used Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Google+, and twitter. Five compared to the nine Obama used. Perhaps because he focused on a more conservative, older audience or because his campaign team for some unknown reason decided deemed a big social media presence unimportant.

It is said that there was about a 10-to-1 spending gap on social media between the two candidates. To put it in perspective, the Obama campaign spent $47 million on digital spending. And the Romney campaign spent $4.7 million.

CNN reported that the “Obama campaign believed from the start that digital was an important new area, and really had an almost an evangelical feeling about signing people up to register to give money through Facebook and Twitter.” Like many others, I now wonder, will 2016 be another social media campaign or will we be on to something new?

Social Networks

Social Networks, or social media in general is so inherent in our day-to-day lives we often don’t even notice it. We’ve become so social media reliant most of our daily interactions occur on computers or our phones. For instance, even people we’re close to now only send us Facebook messages on our birthday.

And we’ve become such a disconnected society. We’ve become lazy in many senses, we’ve become dependent on technology. We no longer pick up the phone because we feel someone is probably not going to answer and it might be more efficient to use a social network because people are quicker to respond. We no longer leave personal voicemails. In fact, nearly all things using a voice is obsolete, hearing someone’s voice tone and excitement in someone’s voice is very rare nowadays when the only social interaction we get is through social networks. We’ve become a society that’s so reliant on technology we’ve forgotten how to communicate with each other.

The other day, I was in line at my favorite restaurant. There were five people in the line and no exaggeration, every single one was on their iPhone, including myself. Not one person was talking to or connecting with anyone there in front of them. Everybody was tweeting, reading Facebook posts or texting somebody, probably talking about how they’re at dinner or what they’re going to eat. Whenever I feel uncomfortable in a social situation, or I’m by myself waiting for a friend, or even walking down a street my head is looking down at my phone. How can you meet people if you don’t ever raise your eyes off your phone? Trust me, I’m guilty of it myself but when you start to notice it you’ll see how far it has gone. 

Initially I wanted to say we’ve disconnected so much with everything, that we’ve lost real relationships with these addictions to social networks. But, when I really thought about it subjectively, I think it brings me closer to people. It helps me stay connected especially while I’m thousands of miles away from many of my friends and family. It helps me touch base with people I normally wouldn’t have time to call or even text. By “liking” something on Facebook, for example, I’m able to, in a way, touch base with one of my friends that I otherwise would have not spoken to that day. That being said, once I started to pay attention, I discovered I’m on my phone for about 90% of each day if not on the computer.

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have all done an amazing job. The creators, in my opinion, are geniuses, they really are. They’ve trained us to completely rely on them, hold all our information, and made us essentially devote our lives to them every single day.

Technology has made the world simpler. We now no longer really need to talk to people in-person. Social media profits off people’s inherent or created social phobias who don’t want to talk to people anyway, and don’t desire deeper connections or relationships. It’s essentially a cop-out. 

When I don’t have my phone and my social networks on hand I feel like I’m missing a limb. I get an uncontrollable sense of anxiety and even loneliness. And I know others feel this same way,but how sad is that? How many of you go out and check your e-mails, your Facebook, or anything else at the strangest hours? You’re about to fall asleep and you think to yourself, “let me check my e-mail one more time.” I know I’ve missed countless hours of sleep at night because I can’t stop mindlessly checking all my various social networks and their constant new content.

We need to be not ruled by social networks. We need to go out there and actually connect to the world around us. Technology has made our life easier, but it’s stopped us from connecting face-to-face. I appreciate what it has done for us, and continues to do for us but I do think we still need human contact on any level. Want to find out how addicted you really are? Click here to get the answer