For this weeks blog we had to read
an article about how much people use networking sites, such as Facebook and
Twitter, for political debates and keeping up with politics.
In
the podcast it was discussed how the upcoming debate and social networking sites
can have drastic effects on relationships and the different was to discuss
politics on networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Based on personal
experience of the speaker, the upcoming presidential election can strain
relationships between people based on political beliefs that are discussed
through Facebook on the ‘forums’. The guest speaker said that this could cause
misunderstandings because a person is not able to explain their opinion
thoroughly enough. A good way to keep this from happening is to talk about it
face-to-face or through private messaging. This allows both people to come to
an understanding with less risk of breaking friendships.
The
article includes the results based on the research on how people use networking
sites for. Based on the research they found that liberals are the ones that
will most often be involved with the use of politic on networking sites.
I
found an additional article about how in 2001 a large group of Filipinos
protested when a corrupt politician was going to be let go without punishment.
The people were outraged and used text messages to coordinate thousands of
people to protest.
"The Political Power of Social Media." Foreign Affairs. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67038/clay-shirky/the-political-power-of-social-media>.
I think that by the way people use technology/social media sites today is outrageous. Like in the article you found, they used text messaging to form a protest. That is basically the same as saying something on Twitter to form a revolt against someone. But also because of how technologically advanced we are today, when the presidential debate is on television, its like I do not even have to watch to know what is going on. I think politics could open their own site for people to discuss on.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on how debates can get a tad out of hand via social networking. I mentioned in my blog that it's more about a "performance" and "winning" than actually being heard or communicating. I hate explaining how I feel through technology because the person on the other end literally can't hear or see my intentions. It can "confuzzle" people, let me tell ya. As for the article you found, I found it silly that a "mass text" would lead to a huge protest. A text or a status about an opinion is not enough evidence compared to a political debate on tv or live.
I agree that a problem with talking about politics on social networking sites is that people only have a limited voice like on twitter. Yes, a person could keep posting and posting stuff about the topic, but its not the same as being able to write everything at once. There thoughts get broken up because other people's post will be in between. The best way to talk about it is face to face because the person is able to get everything out at once.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that people get out of hand when debating their political views on networking sites. I have witnessed many of these "fights" where it starts out as two friends "one-upping" each other with their views then it turns into an all out insult match in a matter of minutes, its ridiculous.
ReplyDelete