Donald Trump's Technological Campaigns

The Technological Campaign The giant spike in social media over the past decade has been tremendous. From sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, social media has dominated society for years and will continue to for the years to come. A question, however, arises from the spike in social media usage. If social media can reach anybody across the entire country, can social media also impact the way our country and politics are handled? This question came into massive light after the 2016 election, where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaigned to become president of the United States. Propaganda was spread all over social media platforms. Donald Trump himself even used social media during the campaign to promote himself and

(dictionary.com) Propaganda has been around for centuries, and is used by nearly all politically based movements or campaigns. With the arrival of social media, propaganda has become rampant and uncontrollable during campaigns or political movements. Since social media platforms are often free-to-use, political figures can load propaganda to any site, free of charge! “It has become fairly common for political campaigns to produce commercials and publish them for free on YouTube instead of, or in addition to, paying for time on television or the radio” (Murse). Political campaigners can also tailor how they run their campaign based off of public feedback, due to the fact that most social media platforms have a feedback system in place. This can make campaigns and politics more about winning and changing views to appeal to the majority, rather than what a political figure ought to do and stick to their political and moral

The youth of American toady is who will decide how our future will be carried out. Social media is a dangerous thing that can heavily influence how todays youth views the world. An article from NorthShore explains different ways that youth is affected by social media. They say that social media is a big contributor to decreased sleep times, which can cause depression, anxiety, and low self esteem. Constant contact with social media can also cause youth to seek those various platforms for educational purposes or different political views. (Northshore) With nearly all political campaigns and advertisements featured on social media platforms, many underaged individuals can swayed by certain campaigns and advertisers. This leads to skewed views and political morals, which will shape their lives, and the future of the United States as a whole. There can be many different ways to combat this unhealthy way of overusing social media. If parents, guardians, or adult figures educate the youth of America of the dangers of overusing social media, we could prevent very dangerous outcomes in the future. An article from The American Interest supports this idea of educating and combating against the negativity on social media. “The traditional free speech defense has been the marketplace of ideas: if there is bad information, the solution is not to censor or regulate it, but to put out good information, which will