2008 Woodie Awards
The election reaches students' online world
Alex Prim
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Perspectives
It is so easy for young people to become consumed by the virtual world.
Such social networking Web sites as Facebook.com and MySpace.com are increasingly popular in the United States for college and high school-aged students. In the upcoming presidential election, though, these networking sites have proved to be valuable additions to each candidate's campaign, regardless of party.
While John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama all have active MySpace accounts and interactive applications on Facebook, students must question how realistic it is to believe that these politicians are actually taking the time to personally update their pages.
"In my opinion, it is likely that the candidates directly and consistently contribute to their accounts," said senior, Erin Dempsey.
Whether or not McCain, Clinton, and Obama regularly maintain their pages is debatable, but all three candidates' MySpace pages overflow with messages from students and other young people. Clinton has 47,582 MySpace friends, Obama has 22,133 friends, and McCain's page is the verbatim biography from his official Web site and does not display his friend amount.
"I think that their presence on MySpace is a way of marketing themselves to that public which may otherwise be uninvolved in their campaigning," Dempsey said.
Other Sacred Heart students are not as believing when it comes to the candidates using the Internet to secure the youth vote in 2008. Junior, Patrick Bonner does not think that the politicians personally devote their time to their MySpace and Facebook profiles but acknowledges that the idea of using the popular websites could work.
"I appreciate the effort that they are [the candidates] making in trying to cater to the young people. At least they are making that effort," said Bonner.
The candidates' presence on Facebook is much different than their involvement on MySpace. Any Facebook user may search a candidate's name and download an application that displays different quotations from the choice candidate in the user's profile. There are options for McCain, Clinton, and Obama quotations all available in much the same style.
Junior Katie Dodaro is ambivalent about the candidates' involvement with this Internet outreach to student voters.
"It is probably their ideas up there [on Facebook and MySpace], but not them dictating it. They are probably using the internet to get votes and to bring awareness to issues," said Dodaro.
Regardless of how personally each candidate is involved in the different Web sites, it is clear to America that the Internet will help determine who the next president will be. With this device to reach mass amounts of voters being utilized in a way that it has never been before, there is guaranteed to be a higher number of young people at the polls in November than ever before.
Whether networking sites are directly responsible for the increasing youth vote or not is still up for debate, but one thing is clear: America's youth is on the computer and that's where the 2008 presidential candidates, personally or not, are searching for votes.
Such social networking Web sites as Facebook.com and MySpace.com are increasingly popular in the United States for college and high school-aged students. In the upcoming presidential election, though, these networking sites have proved to be valuable additions to each candidate's campaign, regardless of party.
While John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama all have active MySpace accounts and interactive applications on Facebook, students must question how realistic it is to believe that these politicians are actually taking the time to personally update their pages.
"In my opinion, it is likely that the candidates directly and consistently contribute to their accounts," said senior, Erin Dempsey.
Whether or not McCain, Clinton, and Obama regularly maintain their pages is debatable, but all three candidates' MySpace pages overflow with messages from students and other young people. Clinton has 47,582 MySpace friends, Obama has 22,133 friends, and McCain's page is the verbatim biography from his official Web site and does not display his friend amount.
"I think that their presence on MySpace is a way of marketing themselves to that public which may otherwise be uninvolved in their campaigning," Dempsey said.
Other Sacred Heart students are not as believing when it comes to the candidates using the Internet to secure the youth vote in 2008. Junior, Patrick Bonner does not think that the politicians personally devote their time to their MySpace and Facebook profiles but acknowledges that the idea of using the popular websites could work.
"I appreciate the effort that they are [the candidates] making in trying to cater to the young people. At least they are making that effort," said Bonner.
The candidates' presence on Facebook is much different than their involvement on MySpace. Any Facebook user may search a candidate's name and download an application that displays different quotations from the choice candidate in the user's profile. There are options for McCain, Clinton, and Obama quotations all available in much the same style.
Junior Katie Dodaro is ambivalent about the candidates' involvement with this Internet outreach to student voters.
"It is probably their ideas up there [on Facebook and MySpace], but not them dictating it. They are probably using the internet to get votes and to bring awareness to issues," said Dodaro.
Regardless of how personally each candidate is involved in the different Web sites, it is clear to America that the Internet will help determine who the next president will be. With this device to reach mass amounts of voters being utilized in a way that it has never been before, there is guaranteed to be a higher number of young people at the polls in November than ever before.
Whether networking sites are directly responsible for the increasing youth vote or not is still up for debate, but one thing is clear: America's youth is on the computer and that's where the 2008 presidential candidates, personally or not, are searching for votes.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
charlie T
posted 4/03/08 @ 1:33 PM EST
IAM an over 60 voter and hvae read your article about the candidates being on the inter net and how that is good for young people ,my qustion is have you ever come across a website that is gear more toward older voters?
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