To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

How Social Media Affects Politics

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Isabella Candelario, Staff Writer

Social media has affected politics in numerous ways, good and bad. It has affected the ways that campaigns are run, and now how presidential candidates can get themselves more known. Apps like Instagram and Twitter allow people to in a way interact with people in the political world. For example, President Trump has over 40 million followers on Twitter, and since he has officially become president he has tweeted over 900 times.

People often times manipulate stories and/or phrases that presidential candidates have said and turn it into something completely false; however people still believe everything they read. People can post one negative thing online that isn’t true and suddenly it spreads and people start believing it so it sets up a bad reputation for most politicians.

Social media also allows for a younger audience to engage in politics, it gives them a better understanding of what is happening and they can easily get informed. About 55% of Hillary Clinton’s votes consisted of the younger generation, but Trump only had the support of 37%, and this is due to the fact that the younger generation is looking at social media moe and looking at the tweets and comments being made. 

Social Media also allows people to easily say their opinion and what they think is important in the world. People all around the world were protesting about gay rights all over Instagram and eventually allowed more people to protest and join the process of getting  the law changed and it worked. The downside to people uploading their opinions about political issues is that not everyone is going to agree, but then again when it comes to politics, whoever does?