Many of us have at least one friend who is very active in sharing his or her political views on social media. It has become somewhat of a phenomenon in recent years for social media to, in a way, narrate political turn-outs or issues connected with government and legislation. It is not only about sharing your opinion anymore – Facebook and Twitter have become a driving force dictating the future governance of our world.
Almost every time when a conversation about politics is started on social media it goes in one of two directions – you either get supported by like-minded friends or you end up ruining a friendship or two in the 103-comment-long feed under your status update.
If you were active on social media in 2016, you probably participated in either a discussion on Brexit or the US Presidential Elections.These events were probably the most talked about political campaigns in the last few years. Both of them had people choose a definite side – you were either a “leave” or “remain” advocate or a Trump of Hillary supporter. This is what made them so talked about on social media and what still fuels the conversation around them even after the voting has ended.
The effect of social media on Brexit
An article published by The Independent recently, states that if social media had not existed, the Brexit vote might have actually swayed the other way. This was based on a poll done by YouGov after the referendum. Those who believe that the campaign would have failed, if it weren`t for Facebook and Twitter, had mostly voted ‘remain’ (47% of them, to be exact).
But the poll also found that it wasn`t only the pro-EU voters who thought that way – 39% of the UK as a whole believes that without the help of social media, most would have voted ‘remain’. This leads us to question the verity and the accuracy of the vote as a whole.
After seeing these results and reading people`s reactions on social media I am left with a lot of questions like, for example, ‘Can we trust the results from the referendum?’. Shouldn`t parliament in this case reconsider the response of the public or even run the vote again?
The Brexit referendum is a great example of how social media can influence our political views. This puts in perspective the future of campaigning and voting and leaves us, or at least me, wondering whether my opinions on different issues are not solely based on the influence that social media has on its users. The only thing we have left is to hope that the outcome of our decisions will benefit everyone and not only those in power.
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