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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Think before you say



By Molly Hilgart 

As I write this at 1 am, on Wednesday, November 07, 2012, I’ve finally come to terms that election is over. The constant campaigning, the repetitive commercial ads, the persuasive “vote for me” speeches, and even the yard signs in your neighbors yard will all slowly begin to disappear. All the time and effort that was put into the last 4 years ended last night around 8 o’clock, when numerous news stations and radio broadcasts announced that Barack Obama had won the vote in Ohio which was the state that was undecided. The final electoral votes (270 needed to win) came out to be Barack Obama=303, Romeny=206(Not including the state of FL). The feelings are most definitely mixed, and opinions have been streaming the media sites all night and day. I truly have never seen sites such as Facebook and Twitter so directed towards political views, opinions, facts, fights, and sometimes complete nonsense. It’s great that people’s opinions can be heard, but there’s a difference between giving your opinion and stating complete nonsense, just to urge on a fight. People need to research and have actual knowledge of the government and this race before they pull out their phones and type out an outrageous tweet or status that is foolish and unnecessary. Isn’t it important for people to be factually up to date, rather than just making things up?

Over the past few years, social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook have been areas that candidates target in hopes of informing the younger generation of voters. President Obama, VP Joe Biden, Mitt Romeny, Paul Ryan, and many more political figures hold twitter and facebook accounts that are easily accessible to the people. They consist of informational inquiry, important dates, interesting facts and more. Unlike many other Facebook junkies and avid tweeters, these political figures use these social media sites to attract their candidacy and share facts that teenagers and other people on social media networks might not know. http://www.thehalsreport.com/2011/01/the-social-impact-of-facebook-in-2011/ goes in to detail, explaining the major impact that Facebook has played in this year’s political race.

Here is a video explaining how some of the political debates were projected and discussed on Twitter and Facebook



                                                                
It’s obvious that these social media sites are here for people to express their opinions, but what I saw on the night of elections truly made my mouth drop. Over the period of the night, I realistically went on Facebook probably 10 times and Twitter maybe 15. Each time I went on, I saw more bashing of each other’s opinions, incorrect information being spread, and statuses and tweets that were plain, right disrespectful regarding both candidates. Tweets like “He’s a joke of a man #shouldhavebeenaslave” & “Good thing I am not rich, because that is all Romeny cares about #gotohe**” are rude and 100% unnecessary. Yes, Twitter and Facebook are places to openly express your thoughts, but come on people! Let’s have a little respect and at least knowledge of what is going on. If you’re going to complain, back it up! Know what you are saying and don’t just make it up.


Whether you’re jumping of joy as President Obama was reelected or sick to your stomach that Mitt Romeny loss, the fact is, there is nothing we can do about it. This is why we vote! This is why we live in America! So we (the citizens 18 or older) have a voice in our government.  No matter if you’re happy or not, there are other ways of formulating your opinion rather than bashing and talking nonsense about topics you don’t really know. Think before you say!

4 comments:

  1. This is probably one of the most interesting blog posts I have read so far. I completely agree with what you are saying. I myself, went on Facebook and Twitter numerous amounts of time and every single post was either for or against Barack Obama; yet not one status/tweet made was just a normal inspirational quote or "im doing my homework." To the extent of what people were writing, it almost became disgusting to read and knowing that these people are the citizens that make up the American Democracy. If you would have looked back at Facebook or Twitter in 2008, I can assure you that there was not nearly as much controversy over the Presidential Election as there was in 2012. It may definitely be because the election was so close, but I do not understand why people are suddenly unfollowing or defriending others because of their opinion on the matter. That is just dumb. Going along with the controversy over the internet, states trying to secede from the government has become a huge topic of controversy now. Many states are trying to peacefully secede from the Democracy of America and make their own, NEW form of government. My question is if so many states are willing to create a petition, then how did Barack Obama win the election. I know you cannot contradict the results, but I guess in the end I am just left confused.

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  2. Molly, I couldn’t agree with you more. I haven’t seen more rude comments about people in a long time and after the election it was just overwhelming. Twitter and Facebook were just raging with rude, nasty, mean comments about Romney and Obama. Voicing your opinion is one thing, but being completely rude and writing terrible comments about people whether they are talking about the President or just a random kid is just wrong. I saw such terrible comments about Obama, and although he wasn’t the candidate I was rooting for, I do not respect those that talked about him so terribly that it was disgusting to read. That night I did not see one post or tweet that dealt with anything but the election and I only saw a couple of nice posts. All of the rest were just terrible and I do not think that is right.

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  3. Molly, you're seriously the best. This is great and I appreciated it. I'm guilty of putting my political views on social media (yes, I'm THAT person...) and I almost always feel like a jerk afterwards because of all the peoples' opinions I've offended, even if their opinions are very different from mine or based in something other than fact. You did a good job of addressing this and the timing is just right because the election is still in all of our heads.

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  4. Molly, this post immediately attracted me towards it. I couldn't agree more with this post. Although the presidential election was two weeks ago, I feel like people are still talking about it. I mean, people do have the right to express how they feel and who they support but there comes a time where things are taken too far and people will get offended. I see it on Facebook a lot and people have been blocking each other and calling each other ignorant and stupid. This is all unnecessary. People need to learn how to express their opinions in a nicely manner and also respect other people's views. If not, how are we suppose to function as a country if we can't respect others differences?

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