Social Networking: The Consequences Of The Internet For Politics

The use of social media is becoming a feature of political and civic engagement for many Americans. Some 60% of American adults use either social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, and a new survey had shown that 66% of those social media users or 39% of all American adults have done at least one of eight civic or political activities with social media. 66% of social media users have employed the platforms to post their thoughts about civic and political issues, react to others’ postings, press friends to act on issues and vote, follow the candidates, ‘like’ and link to others’ content, and belong to groups formed on social networking sites.”
"There are studies that bring a scholarly, data-driven perspective to questions within this area of inquiry. Special credit to George Washington University’s Henry Farrell, whose article in the Annual Review of Political Science, “The Consequences of the Internet for Politics.” …show more content…
With social media sites often getting more traffic than an official campaign website, it’s important for candidates to get connected “The candidate who learned how to put on makeup and smile is the one who won the debate, and the other won on radio, (because) he understood the language of TV,” Most of what happens on social media from brands and political campaigns are not conversations, as they aren’t creating a back-and-forth dialog with voters, but simply hoping the messaging will get voter to vote a certain