As a first-time voter in what appears to be one of the most ridiculous elections America has ever seen, choosing a candidate that I believe will best run our country (or choosing a candidate that has the least amount of potential screw-ups, whichever way you want to look at it) is already somewhat difficult. Politics has never interested me, but I know how important and valuable my vote is for my country, so I have been attempting to become well versed in this election in order to be confident in the candidate I choose to support. November is right around the corner now, and with the conclusion of all the debates, most people have made their decision on who to vote for. I, however, have not, and there is one thing in particular that continuously corrupts my views on this election: social media.
Social media is not as terrible as people (mainly Baby Boomers) seem to think. It is actually an important tool in today's day and age for advertising, marketing, and spreading news and awareness around the world. However, social media (and frankly, media in general) has been corrupting people's views on this election from the beginning.
Almost every video, article, post, and comment that we see sprayed across social media is one-sided. There are very few posts that seem to give a well-rounded view on all candidates and their issues. What does this mean? It means that we are only hearing one side of this election at a time, and--depending on who you follow--this tends to be very unbalanced. Without hearing the full story of every candidate all at once, your views of one particular candidate will become more biased than the next, since you are receiving more (whether good and bad) information about him/her. In turn, you would be expected to vote one way or another just based off of this lopsided information you have been receiving from media--and that doesn't exclude false information, either.
That's not all. The average millennial (who's vote will play an important role in this election) spends approximately 5.4 hours a day on social media. This means that they are consuming the good, the bad, the ugly, the truth, the lies, and the absurdity for several hours a day and, as stated earlier, all of this information is very lopsided. Specifically, this election has been made up of mostly "he said, she said" comments, meaning that everyone is focusing on the negatives of each candidate. It has come down to choosing the lesser of two (or three, if you count the libertarian party) evils, which you could argue whether or not was inevitable with the given candidates. However, we are not consuming much, if any, positive information about the candidates, and therefore we will not be electing a candidate for the good things they will do; we will be electing a candidate based off of the bad things that they might not do.
The debates are the only true form of well-rounded information given on both candidates, but even those you could argue had slightly biased questions in one candidates favor here and there. However, these debates are useful for us to decide as a country who would be best fit as president, as we are able to compare the candidates side by side on real issues.
Nonetheless, social media has done a remarkable job corrupting the decisions of people, so the debates were only offering us slight justification. I implore each of you to not rely on what social media tells you when deciding on your vote. Do your research, make sure you view all sides, and then decide on who you will be putting your vote towards. Don't let social media affect your decision more than it already has. Regardless, please vote. You are an important asset to our country, so do your part!
