The Future of Politics and Social Media

Can you imagine the world 20 years from now? How much do you think it will change in regards to social media? Well, it’s a hard thing to consider since you probably can’t even fathom how much technology will advance by then. One thing I think will definitely happen is everything becoming web based. We already see it happening in our everyday lives, but in the future there probably won’t be a need to have things like newspapers and physical textbooks. People will just be able to go online for all that.

The same goes with politics. I think a lot more information will be given to us on the web in the future. As soon as something big happens we would know about it immediately. Even faster than how news spread now. With presidential campaigning, most of that will be done online too. I can imagine candidates spending a lot more time updating information online than preparing for a speech.

In a way, this sounds good to me because it’ll get more people involved in politics. People will almost be forced into seeing something about politics online. Then maybe people wouldn’t be so naïve about political subjects. What do you think?

***The picture shows yet another one of my theories, that we will be able to vote on our phones in the future***

2008 Election & Social Media

I think that merging social media and politics has made more people aware of what's going on politically. There are many people out there who never watch the news or read a newspaper, but are constantly on the computer. During the past election the candidates used this to their advantage because everything was at the click of a mouse. This was especially true for Obama who received a lot of votes from the younger generation (ages 18-24). He used social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to get his message of Change across to the public.

I’ve never been too big on politics because it just seemed like a pain to keep up with everything. However, now that everything has starting to become internet-based, it’s much easier to keep up and understand. Plus, politics has become more interesting to me since adopting the internet as a tool for providing information. Now you can read blogs, watch videos, and even get updates on Facebook about what’s going on politically. By the way, who would have thought that Facebook/Twitter and politics could relate in any serious way?

Below is a video that I watched when Obama was still campaigning. It has a bunch of celebrities in it talking about why Obama should be president. When celebrities are involved in things like politics, it’s just more good press for the candidate and more people will see it. I probably wouldn’t have ever seen it if it wasn’t on YouTube either.

I guess my main point is that things spread much faster on the internet than anywhere else, so it can be very helpful to a presidential candidate. When everyone knows and starts to care about you, that is when you become popular. The internet succeeds in making things known.

So, here’s my question to you! Do you think that Obama’s success in the election was based a lot on his use of social media sites?