A Word on Social Media, and the Effects of Tweets

Sociologists must find these to be fascinating times to live in.  History is being made while the world we live in is rapidly turning into a digitally connected environment. It is a wonder to see the impact web 2.0 has on events that determine the course of our lives.

Provided you’ve been hooked on your RSS feed properly over the past few weeks, you’ve seen the latest accounts on the effects of social networking and blogs on the US Presidential Election Campaign:

In an interesting article in PCWorld.com author Cyndy Aleo-Carreira points out that President-elect Obama’s campaign “reach across social networking was enormous in scope, with a presence on every conceivable social network, from Twitter to Facebook, and MySpace to LinkedIn.” She then concludes her analysis by stating that “the era of the Internet campaign has begun.”  ZDNet quotes interesting elections related FaceBook figures supporting this conclusion:

• President-elect Obama is the most popular page on Facebook, with 2.5 million supporters. Michael Phelps is second with 1.6 million.
• Overall activity on the site on Election Day was up 20 percent.
• More than 5.44 million people clicked the “I voted” button on Facebook to tell their friends they voted.

Presiden-elect Obama didn’t abandon the internet after the campaign’s victorious outcome but rather, he now brings the web into his administration. The Obama administration decided to broadcast the weekly presidential addresses to YouTube and has already began to post videos on Obama’s transition Web site, Change.gov.

The Washington Post reveals that in addition to regularly videotaping the address, officials at the transition office say the Obama White House will also conduct online Q&As and video interviews. The goal, officials say, is to put a face on government.
Being somewhat addicted to social media ourselves, it’s exciting to discover and re-discover how influential online interaction has become.

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