Penn State Students Speak: Election 2012

During the week leading up to the 2012 presidential election, a focus group was conducted among ten Penn State undergraduate students in order to better understand how they use social media in regards to obtaining and sharing political information and opinions.

Penn State students reported using social media to obtain political information, but they are split when it comes to using social media to share their own political beliefs. Some students believe they can influence their friends by posting political opinions on social media websites, but others feel as if their friends would find it bothersome or simply overlook it.

“I share my political opinions on social media so I can convince others to agree with me,” said one student. “I can influence my friends' political opinions because they know that I'm well-informed and agree with me on other things…so they probably agree with me on the rest of issues.”

Another student sees it slightly differently. “I think that our generation needs to talk about the important political issues of today so we can make an educated choice when we vote. I do not think my opinions influence my friends but I do think my opinions could provoke my friend’s interest to look into the topic a little more.”

Students at Penn State view social media as both an advantageous and detrimental tool for sharing and obtaining information regarding politics. Most of the students that took part in the focus group believe there are strong pros to sharing and obtaining information regarding politics through social media.

 Despite this, all of the students surveyed cited the biggest concern to this process as being the opportunity for information/ opinions to be shared that are loosely based on the factual information or simply are factually false. Said one student, “I think social media is an excellent way to share information. It is an easy access tool that most people my age use. Information is constantly being traded for people to see. In this way it was very advantageous. The only cons might be involved with the people that post claims without support.

 Another student believes the cons of social media and politics outweigh the pros, “Although it can potentially be a useful atmosphere for open dialogue, opinion, and discourse--from my experience-- it is utilized as a platform for the disgruntled ramblings of idiots. There are too many ill-informed people that blindly write posts based on self-opinion rather than actual knowledge.”