For most of us college students, this past election was our first presidential election. And, oh, what an election it was. It will be remembered as the year America had to choose between a man who said whatever was on the tip of his tongue and a woman who simply will not leave the political stage; the year America had to choose between Donald Trump (a.k.a. Lord Voldemort) and Hillary Clinton (aka. Dolores Umbridge). No matter the result, the whole ordeal was painful to watch.
Perhaps the only thing worse than the candidates and the actual election is social media post-election. On Wednesday, everyone’s thoughts and feelings on the election erupted on Facebook and Twitter. It is as if all of the sudden the world just decided to make Facebook their journal.
Now, we all know that journals can include fascinating pieces of information that add new perspectives to life. However, the texts and journals we read in history classes don’t come with small grey links underneath it that reads “comment.” That gray word represents our freedom to disagree with others. Unfortunately, it also provides a way through which people can say things they wouldn’t in person.
Let me elaborate. Republican supporter A shares a pro-Trump article while Democrat supporter B sees the article scrolling through her feed. She is instantly angered by the politics of the article. The same scenario occurs when Republican support A sees the political article Democratic Supporter B shared. Each of them have decisions to make. They can click that comment button, and let all hell break loose. Or, they can just keep scrolling.
We’d all like to think that everyone would keep the peace and resist the urge to click that button. But that would only be a lie. We know that people can sometimes comment rather harsh things on other people’s statuses in the name of expressing their beliefs. Some were mature enough to either express themselves politely or keep their thoughts to themselves. Others, however, turned a harmless website into our worst political nightmare.
I realized something, though, a few minutes into my walk to class Wednesday morning. Sure, the election results blew up social media, and it was certainly a petri dish full of hate feeding off other people’s feelings. However, by the end of the week, it would all be buried behind thousands of new statuses.