In this election, the candidates have taken advantage of using social networking sites to promote their campaigns. With supportive groups on facebook (One Million Strong for Barack Obama) and some candidates like Mitt Romney getting an account himself, the candidates have sought a whole new area fight over: the internet. Using social networking sites allow them to get in touch with the adolescent population and receive voters by getting on their level and spread information about rallying events or their issues. Of course, as in any election, there is a downside to campaigning online—some candidates receive negative attention (One Million Against Hillary Clinton on facebook or the youtube video “Vote Different” which supports Obama over Clinton). However, the internet is the new way of easily sharing information concerning the elections; more information is spread faster through the use of social networking sites, news sites, bloggers, and video sites which will certainly make or break candidates in this and future elections.

To answer the question posed in the title of the article: no, I don’t think that the election will be won on Facebook. Most of the heavy users of facebook, myspace, and other networking sites are adolescents, and they wouldn’t necessarily be able to swing the election in their favor, especially considering that facebook is now open to high school students who wouldn’t be able to vote at all. We learned today in class about majority rule, and there is probably still a large portion of voters who get their election information through other sources such as newspapers or television. However, the internet has helped provide quick and easy information about all of the candidates and allows users to see debates and talks the candidates give. In a way, internet users can track and find out so much more about their favorite candidate than ever before, which will definitely help the candidates spread their views to more people.

Furthermore, it seems that, in regards to the primaries, that a lot of them are won based on cascades. This hasn’t shown through for the democratic candidates, necessarily, since they’re still trying to decide which candidate they want to represent their party. Some voters, though, are probably influenced by how some states voted in the primaries, and base their votes over the winning candidates.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/05/01/election.facebook/index.html#cnnSTCText