This past election made history. Of course every election in this country has, so that statement isn't meaningful on its own. There was, however, something remarkably different about this year's election.
Social media entered the scene.
Social networks have effected all of our lives in countless ways. Maybe they've helped you reconnect with that long lost friend, maybe they give you an all access pass to that crush you admire from afar. Whatever the reason, there are few people in our age group who do not possess accounts on these infectious sites, and even fewer who are unaffected by them entirely.
Now think about it in terms of the election.
I know I am not alone in this experience: my Facebook wall was flooded with posts about the presidency, which friends wanted which candidate to win, why you were an idiot if you did not vote for so-and-so -- honestly I can't even remember how many times my aunt said "Woohoo! Keep it up Obama!" and attached a link to some analyst saying positive things about President Obama. It's likely your wall looked very similar, especially over the course of the last month, given that the average number of Facebook friends is 190 ( I know, we all probably have 2x as many, but you get the picture).
Facebook, although the largest, is not the only site where this massive social network election took place. The growing social network Twitter was also a battleground for this pseudo-election, with hundreds of different hashtags containing long strings of testimonies, arguments, and proclamations telling the world "I voted!".
If you can recall, 4 years ago during the 2008 election, this phenomena of social media augmenting the election and pushing it into the personal lives of people did not exist. And even if it did, there would not nearly be as big a splash as there was this year. To put it into perspective, Facebook had less than 150 million users. As of now, Facebook is approaching its billionth user. That is a remarkable difference. It is pretty evident that more of an uproar about certain topics -- the election being a hot one.
What was pretty astonishing to me while I was reading an article about this is that a lot of people stated that they felt victim to peer pressure because some of their friends were so polarized about the candidate they supported that they felt pressured about voting, while some wished to broadcast their vote to the world, especially those close to them.
I think this topic may be borderline on the requirement of an ATL event, but it is definitely close enough to home since this event effected everyone with a social network.
Personally, I am glad that I missed voting in this election and avoided much of the pressure, criticism, and possible heated arguments with friends on a digital forum. I can't hold out for long, though, 2016 is coming in four short years.
http://m.digitaltrends.com/social-media/forget-social-media-this-was-the-peer-pressure-election/
http://www.princessdesign.net/wp/2008/11/27/number-of-facebook-users-per-country-november-2008/
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