How do you think social media has affected Presidential elections? What are the positive impacts? The negative?

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:04:34 -0400

Response by PO2 Kristy Williams made Sep 12 at 2016 9:06 PM

PO2 Kristy Williams — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:06:06 -0400

Negative: people believe everything.

Response by PO2 Marty Sharpe made Sep 12 at 2016 9:12 PM

PO2 Marty Sharpe — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:12:48 -0400

Not sure of any positive. But negative is abundant. Anything someone hears thinks or just dreams about winds up on social media. The poster does not check his facts or make sure it is correct before posting. This keeps untruths going for years. This not only harms the person being posted about it harms the other person because his or her supporters look like idiots and scoundrels.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Sep 12 at 2016 9:12 PM

CPT Jack Durish — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:12:56 -0400

The credibility of the traditional media is sinking fast. More and more people are waking up to the fact that America's Fourth Estate has become the Fifth Column of the Progressive Movement and are turning to social media for "real news". Take for example the videos of Hillary's "stumble" at the 9-11 commemoration. Every one was shot on cell phones. Where were the photo journalists. We're pretty certain that if any of them caught the action, the footage is locked securely in vaults back at their stations. Thus America's bloggers and cell phone videographers are now our most trusted journalists. Tweets and Facebook postings are becoming the most popular media for distributing their content. And what's really great is that they're not all marching in lockstep behind one ideology. They represent every band of the political spectrum.

Response by SPC James Harsh made Sep 12 at 2016 9:14 PM

SPC James Harsh — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:14:09 -0400

It's awesome, there are a lot of people that are getting involved. My only complaint is looking at, a now publicly traded company (I wish they'd vote the owner of off the island), Facebook. It is the largest website because of the people that connect with their family and friends, and more. The entity of Facebook has become political which I don't agree with. When they are willing to modify the website with algorithms so that you see the candidates or subject matter that they choose, that's no good I think.

Response by Maj Marty Hogan made Sep 12 at 2016 9:16 PM

Maj Marty Hogan — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:16:28 -0400

I think it has helped the low information voter become famous. Different medium and not sure of measured impact, but many believe anything posted on FB is real SSG Private RallyPoint Member

Response by PFC Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 12 at 2016 9:46 PM

PFC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:46:32 -0400

I would say an upside to it is that candidates can now reach a more diverse group of voters. The big problem with social media and elections are a lot of misinformation and a lot of things are watered down to politics so that people are only seeing an agenda driven piece of information and not getting the useful information needed for one to make an informed voting decision.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 12 at 2016 9:49 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:49:09 -0400

People don't trust the media to be honest and forthright with them so social media has become a news source for low information voters, too lazy to do their own research. I fear this election will be decided by whomever has the best meme.

Because, as we all know, you can't put it up on that thar interwebs ifin it ain't true.

Response by SFC Christopher Perry made Sep 12 at 2016 9:49 PM

SFC Christopher Perry — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:49:10 -0400

Sorry, mine ended up buried in the wrong place.

My comments regarding the negative side of social media and the presidential election were already addressed. The negative side, in my mind, leads to positive side which is the entertainment value. What can I say? I have a pretty demented sense of humor.

Response by SFC Christopher Perry made Sep 12 at 2016 10:05 PM

SFC Christopher Perry — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 22:05:43 -0400

Just in the last hour I've run into a post claiming a brace (presumably holding Hillary up) broke off as she was getting in lot the van and anther claiming body double.

Response by MSG Wade Huffman made Sep 13 at 2016 9:10 AM

MSG Wade Huffman — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 09:10:05 -0400

An old quote often attributed to Mark Twain seems to fit social media as well as newspapers:

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed.”

Response by LTC Patrick Sauer, MHA, FACHE, CMPE made Sep 13 at 2016 9:21 AM

LTC Patrick Sauer, MHA, FACHE, CMPE — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 09:21:35 -0400

Videos posted show content unfiltered by the Ministry of Propaganda, aka main stream media. Unless it is NBC editing videos, it allows the voter to view credible, primary source info and not the usual spin of the MOP. Social media makes the MOP irrelevant.

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Sep 13 at 2016 12:15 PM

Cpl Justin Goolsby — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 12:15:53 -0400

Well the biggest impacts are we can scrutinize candidates more through a microscope. The positive impacts is that we can get a better idea of who we're actually voting for. The negative is that you will also have to sift through a lot of slanted views to gauge whether it's factual or biased information.