“This is our present political social life: We don’t just create political strife for ourselves; we seem to revel in it” (Sanders). I am one of the fortunate people (compared to most of my surrounding peers who are younger than me) who was able to vote for the last election in 2012. While Facebook was around at the time, I do not remember nearly as much media outreach and coverage completely taking over my Facebook ‘wall’ for weeks like this election in 2016 has. One thing in particular that I’ve seen over and over again on my Facebook is exactly what Sanders detailed as “Just about all of your friends are posting about the election, nonstop. And there are a few who brag about deleting friends, or who urge friends to unfriend them over their political leanings: “Just unfriend me now.””
Politics has never been such a popular subject to talk about in my life until this year. I’m honestly afraid to, just in case it brings the end of friendships just like Sanders says has been happening. It’s ridiculous and yet not ridiculous at all. When we support a candidate, it is thought that we are personally identifying with them, which is not always the case. We could support a candidate and not completely agree with some of the things they say, or even because we simply hate what the other candidate says, has done, or represents. We could support a candidate because they are our political party’s representative or actually believe without a doubt that they are the best possible choice to become our president. Even with all of this said however, I still believe that by voting for a certain candidate, considering the things they say to the public through the media however hateful or not, you are essentially agreeing to putting that person in a position of power and thereby choosing to have that person representing the country to the rest of the world.
It seems impossible to ignore the posts, tweets, videos, blogs, etc. about the recent election, “almost forcing us to wallow in the divisive waters of our online conversation” (Sanders). I think it is because of this constant posting about the election, and thus the endless media coverage about it, that is making it impossible to avoid creating an opinion about it, as well as discussing it in everyday face-to-face conversation.
“Did Social Media Ruin Election 2016?” by Sam Sanders
samshep 
A reasoned response. Count it.
LikeLike