Social Media plays a large role in our everyday life. It is not a surprise that as you look around, you will see more and more individuals that are glued to their devices. Whether it is Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and many more of the social media apps, or falling victim to games such as candy crush, Pokemon go or Mario Kart.
Whenever it comes to a new election, whether it is national or local, our media stream becomes flooded with advertisements and pictures of all the candidates. Good and bad press take turns on showing up everywhere to try and persuade audiences on who is the best candidate.
Even with social media today, it is super easy to paint a person in a negative or positive light. This is especially seen in articles that are published and easily leaked to Facebook for ‘clickbait’. These articles are so biased that it is easy for a reader to believe whatever is written without fact checking.Even on Snapchat there are episodes of the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, E News and MTV News are aired daily to help users stay connected to the news.
Within the past two to three years, we have learned that the internet and social media uses an algorithm that filters what pops up on your timeline based on what you previously searched or what you visit often. This is another outlet that is used that continues to feed people the same stuff whether biased or not.
Saturday Night Live is another form of media that impacts one’s view of politicians. Since 1975, SNL has been known for their parody skits that are geared at anyone in the limelight. Celebrities and politicians alike are not safe from the comical-coated jabs that are made about past actions, current decisions and anything else they can find to add as ammunition.
In the past few years, SNL did several skits on Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, whether it was mocking the debates that took place or the current events that unfolded while serving. Although they are meant to draw a laugh from an audience they do have a powerful meaning.
Even Youtube, the “mecca” of all things video related, is not innocent of having content that can skew the viewpoint of people. With this platform people have been able to expose the errors of Youtubers actions as well as politicians.
So with so many resources that access on a regular basis. it is important that we learn to fact check everything we read, see or hear. When it comes to deciding who to elect into office and who would have the best interest of the people, it is important to not let our decision be formed by views that are placed on us from our devices.
