Internet, Social Media And Young Voters

The Importance of Internet, Social Media and Young Voters

As time passes, technology has improved and change people’s life entirely. Now people no longer have to wait months for mails from their friends, or get information from newspaper; people can learn and know the information within seconds through internet. Internet not only creates the ability for people to have conversation with anybody, but also creates a new way of advertising. Social media now becomes something that people will check the information from their phone every day. According to SmartInsight, around 2.307 billion of people are active social media users and 1.968 billion of people are active mobile social users. Therefore, it is easy for a third party who wants to spread

This village was created ever since the social network were online. Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook as a Harvard sophomore on February 4, 2004 (“At Last -- The Full Story Of How Facebook Was Founded). This was the first time social media appeared in the world of internet. Facebook allows people to communicate, link, and share information with others. The problems of distance or different culture are not issues on this platform. Then in 2006, twitter was launched (“The Real History Of Twitter.”). The social media industry became bigger as the technology improving. Sometimes the social media would have news that published faster than the news. For example, the US Airways plane landed into the Hudson River. As mentioned in the article “New York Plane Crash: Twitter Breaks the News, Again.” from The Telegraph, “Twitter users broke the news of the incident around 15 minutes before the mainstream media alerted viewers and readers to the crash. The first recorded tweet about the crash came from Jim Hanrahan, aka Manolantern, four minutes after the plane went down”, this Twitter user happened to be close to the place where the accident happened. This incident presents how fast the message could possibly being notice through social media, and this is the crucial

Young voters are people whose age are around 18 to 29. In 2012 presidential election, 60 percent of voters with age around 18 to 29 backed the Democratic candidate for the House, and 38 percent of same age voters backed the Republican candidate, which created a gap of 22 points (“The Young Voter Turnout in 2014.”). The young voters becomes an important variables for the 2016 presidential election. According to the New York Times article, “Young Voters, Motivated Again”, “support for Sanders among potential voters age 18 to 29 had rocketed from 1 percent to 41 percent in about six months.” Unlike some elders who supports candidates because of the parties they represent or the political experience, the young voters focus on “integrity, level-headedness, and authenticity, in that order. Political and business experience were far down the list.” (“Young Voters, Motivated Again”). Young voters provide a different values for presidential candidates. However, some may think young voters are not important because only 49 percent of young voters came out and vote in 2004 (“9 Reasons We Need Young Voters More Than Ever - The Best Colleges.”). Even though lesser young voters are willing to come out and vote compare with elders which “70% of those between 45 and 59 voted, 73% of those between 60 and 74, and 69% of those 75 and older”, young voters are still important (“9 Reasons We Need Young Voters More Than Ever - The Best Colleges.”). In the 2008