Every day, more and more shocking posts regarding this year's election appear on social media. I was most astounded at the fact that one of my Facebook friends had to post a status reminding everyone that it is possible to maintain a friendship with someone who likes a candidate you don’t prefer. The status got a tremendous amount of likes, but what really got me is that it seemed to shock people. We should never have to be reminded that people have different opinions and perspectives from us, and that such a factor should not determine our relationship with someone, especially regarding something like an election.

I remember when I was in the eighth grade and the 2008 election included popular candidates such as Obama, Clinton and McCain. When the election was brought up then, the conversation was mostly about the uniqueness of the possible election outcomes -- how, if Obama won, he would be the first African American president; if Clinton won, she would have been the first female president; and if McCain won, he would have been the oldest elected president. I find it funny that I thought that was a "crazy" election.

People naturally got opinionated, but I don't remember any violence, hatred or separation between peers based on choice of candidate. It could very well be that growth of social media is a direct correlation to the increase of negativity that arose from this year's election.

In retrospect, that election wasn’t even strange compared to today's election. However, strange would be an understatement for this election, on top of a multitude of other words, such as crazy, ridiculous, worrying, stressful, pure hatred. The list goes on, and I have to stop there because the number of scary and negative words to describe it are overwhelming.

The fact of the matter is that this election is like no other. Everything from the overused memes and using Facebook to argue about each person’s stance has gotten too far out of hand. By the time someone gets elected, there will be so many memes and articles produced from this election that the number could be astronomical.

I realize that now, future elections will most likely be determined by memes and social media posts rather than candidate speeches on TV, rallies or reading the news. The outcome of this year's election is going to be drastically altered by our reliance on social media to be informed of news and events. I am only left to wonder how polls would be different if there were rules and regulations on social media that outlined why it's important to not determine such significant factors based solely upon it.

Basically, this is the first year prime decisions were made based on memes. What does that say about our willingness to go out there and discover for ourselves using the most reputable sources of information? I certainly hope this year’s election doesn’t further train millennials to rely on social media for important news.

Last week, a Trump supporter told protesters at a rally to "Go to Auschwitz." Sadly, this is now piling up on top of other, seemingly hundreds of jaw-dropping articles describing the hatred Trump supporters possess and constantly display. This hatred only seems to be increasing. Witnessing some of the Trump rally violence myself only made it that much more awful. I was more than mortified when I witnessed many non-white people getting kicked out of a Trump rally at my school. Supporters screamed at them and gave them death stares as the protesters were kicked out. Later, a report stated that a photographer got slammed to the ground.

I fear that elections from here on out will be about asserting dominance to rival supporters, thereby developing more hate and violence over different opinions. How ironic is it that supporters/protesters are practically forming wars between each other, in hopes of bringing power to someone we hope can prevent and handle actual wars?

Elections are indeed a big deal, since they determine a big part of our future, but they should never come with this much violence or be approached mostly by memes, separation and disruption in our country. The hype from the last election to this one escalated far too quickly. When did elections go from maturely discussing thoughts and opinions about the candidates to downgrading those who oppose your viewpoints?

I hope we have more practical and respectable candidates in next election, but I fear the ease with which certain candidates, who seem to have no clue about the real nature of the presidency, have come to such power will only empower other future candidates with the same lack of skills. In the meantime, watching my country divide upon means far beyond our control, when we already divide ourselves more than we should, is heartbreaking. Elections shouldn’t separate us any further, especially in a country where we need to work on uniting as one more than ever.