An article in the New York Times this week highlighted how the different Presidential Campaigns have been using social media to connect to the younger voters and get them to vote. Some of the social media outlets include Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Spotify. This seems like the natural thing to do in order to get at the younger voters to get to the booth, but I have a different question that doesn't have the most obvious answer.
Most of the young people that are being targeted in this article are the ones that do not watch the news, read the paper, or have a factually verified source to get their information. They get all of their information on twitter and facebook. The presidential candidates aren't tweeting about their policies, they're trying to win a popularity contest. Obama is sending videos from the movie "Mean Girls" and Romney is Instagram-ing pictures of him playing Jenga with his family. The young voters are getting the most biased information from the most biased of sources. Which leads to my question...
Is it Okay that these candidates are just trying to get these young voters to notice and like them as people? Shouldn't they be trying to get them to pay attention to the issues and form their own opinion? And if young people are voting without proper education, is it better that they don't vote? I have attached the article at the bottom of the page.
Link to Article
I think a president needs a certain amount of "every man" about him but at a certain point it needs to stop. I know people who vote for Obama because he seems like a cool guy to have a beer with. If people are going to vote they need to be educated on the issues.
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