Social Media

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    An election year carries a different feeling than most years. As the polls open and voting starts, even the internet marches to a different beat. Our social media feeds are flooded with the latest presidential debate drama, campaign videos, and a million reminders to do your civic duty and go vote. While it may seem that everyone is popping their opinions on the timeline, and all of the information is irrelevant, among the bustle, the presidential candidates are posting too. In a society where scrolling through our apps is an everyday occurrence, the weight of a post affects our opinions more than you think. Following this trend, both presidential candidates have used multiple forms of social media as a form of free media coverage throughout their campaigns, but most prominent, Twitter.

    Throughout the past four years, President Trump has utilized his social media presence as a form of communication to the American people and has continued to do so throughout his campaign. This profound social media usage has stemmed from even early on in his original campaign. "[Trump] frequently uses Twitter and other social media platforms to make comments about other politicians, celebrities, private citizens and daily news. From his official declaration of candidacy in June 2015 through the first two-and-a-half years of his presidency, he tweeted over 17,000 times." This goes to show that he was not new to social media entering this past campaign. On the morning of his Inauguration in 2017, President Trump sent out a tweet reading, "It all begins today! I will see you at 11:00 A.M. for the swearing-in. THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES - THE WORK BEGINS." This tweet kickstarted his presidency and his pretense on social media; in fact, in the early days of his presidency, he was averaging about nine tweets a day. As President Donald Trump "integrated Twitter into the very fabric of his administration" and made it an essential tool for all politicians moving forward.

    As it was already a major factor in how he acted as president, it is no surprise that Trump has kept this process throughout his campaign. He has built somewhat of a "Twitter army," a and of devoted followers, some doctors, and other politicians, who regularly retweet his materials, no matter how outrageous, adding a sense of credibility to the messages. Not only does the President have his own tweets and retweets to go off of, but multiple pro-Trump and pro-Republican Twitter accounts also support is narrative and have shown to be "the original source of one-fifth of retweets pushing misleading narratives about voting." While Trump is posting as he wishes, he has others doing more free labor and dirty work for him. He can say virtually anything he wants, and people will listen because he has built such a powerful social media presence that he is getting extremely beneficial free media coverage at just the click of a button.

    As the President has set a new stage for how the world views politics, Presidential candidate Joe Biden had no other choice than to hop on the train, but it has come with its own drama. His presence is known but not heavily published as he has only posted a few tweets in comparison to his running mate. One of the most notable simply stating, "Donald Trump in the worst president we've ever had." This blunt and harsh tweet took off as soon as it his Biden's timeline, and has become his most liked and retweeted tweet. With just a mere 6,000 tweets posted by Biden since 2007, he is definitely behind his competitor. While his appearance on the app has somewhat spiked since his campaign started and the debates heated up, Biden's social media presence has been somewhat lackluster compared to President Trump. While it is hard to stay on pace with the man who single-handedly made social media a huge part of politics, he could and should make more of an effort. Frequent tweeting that includes campaign updates and local information would add an edge to Biden's campaign, and why not take advantage of free media coverage?

    In an age where everyone is buried in their hones for hours on end, politicians have made moves to make themselves known amongst social media platforms. With our current president leading the way, social media usage has become a prominent form of communication to the public and a campaign platform for many. Donald Trump tweets often and rallies his followers to support his antics, thus taking advantage of every ouch of free media coverage he can get. His competitor, Joe Biden, is following suit but needs to up the ante. Both candidates have shown to use social media to their benefit as free media coverage, and are paving the way for politicians in the future. As times change, so do the rules, and now the political game is played with the price being a double-tap for a like.