Blog 4: What Social Media Outlets are Used the Most for Political Opinion?
It seemed like every time I went on Facebook from November 2015 to November 2016, there were literally dozens of posts by my friends on the election and presidential candidates. Twitter was more or less the same, but the other two big social media outlets, Instagram and Snapchat, were all but silent.
I have around 500 friends on Facebook, which is down some 50 or so friends from two years ago. I deleted these friends because all they ever did was post about politics- including how terrible both Trump and the Republican party were. I personally identify with the Republican party, although I didn't vote for Trump. These friends were making me feel awful about my beliefs and my opinions. Their words and posts were nothing but hurtful even as they claimed Trump was the hurtful one.
It seemed so ironic to me that they used hideous words to describe a man's behavior who they were imitating. They ranted about how Trump shouldn't be allowed to use social media, mainly Twitter, because all he did was say hurtful and offensive things. Yet they were doing the exact same thing.
I had a few friends who stood out more than all the rest because of how often and what they posted. One of them was my own brother. He posted his political opinions on Facebook almost as often as Trump himself did on Twitter.
At first it was a tirade of Bernie Sanders is the greatest thing since sliced bread posts. Most of them were shared videos from liberal outlets like Politico, showing footage of Bernie at a rally with thousands of people yelling "Feel the Bern!"
Then it was a bunch of stuff bashing Hillary Clinton and Trump. All of it claiming that they were the worst thing to ever happen to America. He said that Hillary was a crooked liar and Trump was evil. It was all hateful and he was trying to convince us to see his ways.
My brother was not the only one. Many of my friends from high school posted the same things. They put Bernie on an alter for the simple reason that he would "fix everything" by taxing everyone way more. They posted videos of Trump saying mean things and claiming he was the devil. They posted lists of all the lies Hillary had told, how she deleted 30,000 emails with top secret information. Everything was hateful and I only got more and more tired of it, sicker and sicker of what my friends had to say.
Their posts, their shared videos and shared lists didn't make me want to vote for someone else. All it did was make me want to unfriend them, so I did.
I don't use Twitter nearly as much as Facebook, but it was more or less the same thing. People were just re-tweeting the opinions of political "experts." They were re-tweeting Trump's offensive tweets, saying that a man who could start World War III with his Twitter account shouldn't be allowed to tweet. Yet they were just extending his reach.
Instagram was different. I can only recall seeing one or two politically charged posts in that time. It's designed around photos and nobody found a way to post photos of how terrible Trump or Hillary were. The posts I remember seeing were selfies at Bernie rallies saying how much fun they had.
Snapchat was the same as Instagram. I know there were stories by the media in sections I didn't look in, but I never had a friend snap me something political. I never saw anyone put anything politically charged on their story.
There were so many hateful posts by my friends on Facebook and Twitter last year. I lost a lot of friends and almost unfriended my own brother. People were not going to convince me to change my vote based on simple videos by biased sources. Instagram and Snapchat were surprisingly not politically involved whatsoever. I say surprising because these are the most used social media outlets by my generation. This is why the older generation accuses us of not being politically involved.
I have around 500 friends on Facebook, which is down some 50 or so friends from two years ago. I deleted these friends because all they ever did was post about politics- including how terrible both Trump and the Republican party were. I personally identify with the Republican party, although I didn't vote for Trump. These friends were making me feel awful about my beliefs and my opinions. Their words and posts were nothing but hurtful even as they claimed Trump was the hurtful one.
It seemed so ironic to me that they used hideous words to describe a man's behavior who they were imitating. They ranted about how Trump shouldn't be allowed to use social media, mainly Twitter, because all he did was say hurtful and offensive things. Yet they were doing the exact same thing.
I had a few friends who stood out more than all the rest because of how often and what they posted. One of them was my own brother. He posted his political opinions on Facebook almost as often as Trump himself did on Twitter.
At first it was a tirade of Bernie Sanders is the greatest thing since sliced bread posts. Most of them were shared videos from liberal outlets like Politico, showing footage of Bernie at a rally with thousands of people yelling "Feel the Bern!"
Then it was a bunch of stuff bashing Hillary Clinton and Trump. All of it claiming that they were the worst thing to ever happen to America. He said that Hillary was a crooked liar and Trump was evil. It was all hateful and he was trying to convince us to see his ways.
My brother was not the only one. Many of my friends from high school posted the same things. They put Bernie on an alter for the simple reason that he would "fix everything" by taxing everyone way more. They posted videos of Trump saying mean things and claiming he was the devil. They posted lists of all the lies Hillary had told, how she deleted 30,000 emails with top secret information. Everything was hateful and I only got more and more tired of it, sicker and sicker of what my friends had to say.
Their posts, their shared videos and shared lists didn't make me want to vote for someone else. All it did was make me want to unfriend them, so I did.
I don't use Twitter nearly as much as Facebook, but it was more or less the same thing. People were just re-tweeting the opinions of political "experts." They were re-tweeting Trump's offensive tweets, saying that a man who could start World War III with his Twitter account shouldn't be allowed to tweet. Yet they were just extending his reach.
Instagram was different. I can only recall seeing one or two politically charged posts in that time. It's designed around photos and nobody found a way to post photos of how terrible Trump or Hillary were. The posts I remember seeing were selfies at Bernie rallies saying how much fun they had.
Snapchat was the same as Instagram. I know there were stories by the media in sections I didn't look in, but I never had a friend snap me something political. I never saw anyone put anything politically charged on their story.
There were so many hateful posts by my friends on Facebook and Twitter last year. I lost a lot of friends and almost unfriended my own brother. People were not going to convince me to change my vote based on simple videos by biased sources. Instagram and Snapchat were surprisingly not politically involved whatsoever. I say surprising because these are the most used social media outlets by my generation. This is why the older generation accuses us of not being politically involved.
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