Social Media's Political Analysts

The best part living in this social media age is watching the instant overreaction after a presidential election. It is comical to watch how people will post a sensationalist Facebook status about how upset they are about the outcome of the election. Twitter as a microblog makes it difficult for a college age individual to rant about what is wrong with our nation in 140 characters or less. I feel like they use Facebook and Twitter as a place to launch their career as a political analyst. This group of people makes it seem like whoever took office was going to be inadequate leader. Some of the posts made it seem like this nation is going to crumble like the Roman Empire. I saw a lot of people making ill informed posts over the legalization of medicinal marijuana and the presidency. One person wrote

“I'll never forget where I was when 9-11 happened. It changed our world. Now, I'll never forget where I was when this country went under. Tonight, the night Obama was re-elected. We have officially backed up the Titanic into the iceberg again, for good measure. In 3-4 years, many will be saying.....WTF?? I thought I would be better off when I voted Obama back in for more. Yet, things are much worse now. Huh??? When that happens, look back at this posting. Maybe then, you'll realize what you should have done. It will be too late. Enjoy your rising debt, with no way to pay.”

How can you honestly compare the re-election of Barack Obama to 9/11 or the Titanic untimely demise? People on social media throw claims against the wall like the enjoy your rising debt, with no way to pay. When others attempt to debate them on this issue the person that made the claim becomes a very hostile audience and nothing gets accomplished. Another person wrote

“Lets just say this country is in a world of hurt anyway, whether or not Obama or Romney is president. I'm not big on politics at all, but the fact that Obama put us nearly 10T more dollars in debt, within 4 years, tells me that the Economy under him just got worse. Not saying Romney could do a better job, but me being a business major in college, & knowing a little bit how companies & businesses work, that tells me that Romney, given the chance to be president, probably would have not made the same mistake. Keep in mind that it took 200 years to be only 7T in debt, & Obama more than doubled that with all of the actions he has made as president. With that being said, I'm not for either, was here merely just state some factual information.”

This person is not as over the top as the first person that compared an election to two national tragedies. The problem with this post is the last statement about factual information that is not factual. This person is using numbers that have not been fact checked for accuracy. Apparently, this person would rather have Mitt Romney try to run this nation like he was playing a game of Monopoly. It seems ridiculous how many people believe this election is going to transform us into a futile nation. When their candidate loses, it must trigger a defense mechanism that can help them cope with the reality that “the other guy” won. I believe the author of this post tries to be impartial and then becomes an obvious supporter of right wing politics. Another one of my amateur conservative political analysts posted this gem.

“wow when the world allows weed to be legal you know that the worlds ... the worlds made off complete and utter mooks I swear.”

This person is adamantly against question 3 being passed in Massachusetts. It is a very ill informed statement since marijuana has been legalized here for medicinal use not recreational use. I read this and felt like this individual saw that keywords of legalizing marijuana and didn't bother to read about how the state would enact this bill. What agitates me is that people debate this individual over his reaction, but this individual does not back up their claim. How are you going to write something that will get a rise out of the Facebook community and not back up your claims? It is quite possibly one of the most frustrating things to see on social media.

The two hot topics that continued to come up were the election and question 3. I can respect people having their own personal views, but please be able to back up your claim. It just seems strange that every four years I view these undercover political analysts that come out of the woodwork and criticize the president or the challenger based off the political advertisements on television. Don't just conform to the popular belief, educate yourself and make a decision on what you believe in. There is a quote from the film The Departed where the Police Chief Queenan interviews William Costigan after he becomes a state trooper and,“You want to be a cop, or do you want to appear to be a cop. It's an honest question.” I modified my version of this quote to deal with politics. Do you want to know about politics, or do you want to appear like you know about politics? I feel as this is the main question when people post political statuses.