Millenials React on Facebook to the Election

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but these days, everyone is hoping their facebook status is worth a thousand likes.

I was and am absolutely fascinated by the facebook statuses posted after the election Tuesday night. The range in opinion, misinformation, wild accusations and actual thought provoking insights is vast, particularly among the millenial generation. The majority of my friends on Facebook are close to my age, so by just scrolling through my newsfeed this morning, I was able to do a little detective work during is an activity I do multiple (dozens??) times a day anyway.

In other mediated platforms like television or radio, it’s often the most extreme voices that are heard. However, on facebook, twitter and blogs, even those more moderately-minded have a place to state (type) their opinion. Facebook statuses are are microblogs with a captive audience (One might even call it a hostage situation.) Millenials choose the blogs and twitter accounts we follow, but it’s harder to choose your friends on facebook. Social implications abound when you ignore or unfriend someone on facebook, so if a Facebook friend is into political ranting and their opinion comes up on your newsfeed, there’s no where to run. I am of the camp to just keep scrolling and keep my opinions to myself, but most of my generation took to their keyboards when they saw the status explosion.

 Many of them indicated that they were sick of bipartisanship and ready to focus on the future as Americans, not political parties. 

Others were just sick of the complaining:

Matt and his commenters did an excellent job of mocking the predictable content of the statuses:

There were the excited supporters of President Obama:

 

And the disappointed (and sometimes vulgar, I found) supporters of Governor Romney

 

And those who had other, more pressing matters on their minds:

However, there was one status in particular that I wanted to sing “Amen” to. I felt that was the most thought provoking and I was actually appreciative of its lack of inciting words:

 The colorful commentary from his mother indicated that engaging in the political debate is not something that Steven typically does, but I think he makes an excellent point. So many issues are wrapped up into the platform of one candidate that it’s difficult to separate your personal opinion on the individual running and how you predict they will handle the problems facing the nation. The words “fiscally conservative, but socially liberal” are becoming a little cliché around Vanderbilt’s campus, but I feel like they have a point. Steven may have only received two likes for his comment (ad a comment from his mom), but that just goes to show that my theory about the loud voices is certainly disprovable. Extreme voices are often the most heard on TV and radio, and the extreme statuses are often the most seen on Facebook. As differently our news functions today as a result of social networking and blogging have brought about, I guess some things never change.