Let's Get Political

When I think of election night, I picture Americans glued to the TV screen waiting for results to be announced.  I imagine news reporters biting at the bit to get a good story.  I think of large groups of supporters of a respective party meeting to cheer on their candidate.  What I don't think about is what is going on in a completely different environment.  During election night, I never stopped to think about what was going on on the internet, that is, until I read this article.

Not everyone was sitting in front of a television screen, simply waiting to hear the results of the 2008 presidential election.  Some people were expressing their emotions, their success and their disappointments online.  Whether through blogging, video, or other means of communication, people were expressing how they felt about Barack Obama being chosen to be the 44th president of the United States.  

In class, we have been questioning how future generations will be affected by the age of the internet.  In addition, we discuss how the internet is already affecting our lives.  If the amount of CMC (computer-mediated-communication) related to the 2008 election was compared to the amount of CMC related to the 2004 election, I wonder what kind of results would be found.  Although I can only guess at the results, I would be willing to bet some high dollars that during this election, there was a vast increase in people who expressed his or her feelings about the election online.  People are becoming more comfortable using the internet as an outlet for expression.  The fear of putting your feeling out there for the world to see, are minimizing, as more people are sharing their thoughts with not only their friends and family, but with the entire world.  Who knows how this will change in the future, but if more people start using the internet as a device to state their political beliefs, the election of 2012 should definitely be an interesting one.