#let’s talk about politics

#let’s talk about politics

Summer Ericson, Staff Writer

Twitter is the home of memes, embarrassing videos and virtually anything funny. Anyone who has an account knows that when something goes viral, nearly everyone on Twitter will see it. This isn’t surprising considering there are 974 million existing accounts to this day. But another topic has taken Twitter by storm: #politics.

The millennial age is using their social media expertise to tweet about important topics, such as the presidency of Donald Trump. With Trump’s every move comes a wave of opinionated, sometimes bigoted tweets. The immigration ban caused thousands to tweet their opinion, and the defunding of Planned Parenthood also left many deranged tweeters to express themselves. Many people have a problem with this. “I don’t want to see tweets about politics. I’m just trying to find more Rain Drop, Drop Top memes,” said the young boy completely unaware of how America is currently changing. *If you don’t know what the Rain Drop, Drop Top memes are, you’re probably old.

Tweeting about politics actually, opens the door for discussion and is a way of democracy. No matter what your standpoint is, there will be other people tweeting in opposition or supporting you. Twitter is heaven for an opinionated person like me. Going to Twitter to see the stances and different ideas about politics are extremely relieving. I say relieving because growing up in South Dakota doesn’t give me much of an outlet for my liberal opinions and views.

If you scrolled through my Twitter, 90 percent of the tweets would be about Trump’s policies and/or other politics. I have probably gotten a few unfollows from annoyed, unopinionated or opposed people, but that does not bother me at all. Having an opinion, especially as a woman in today’s society, is extremely important to me. But I also appreciate that there are people opposed to my opinions. I don’t like it, but that is what democracy is. Hoping for everyone to agree with your views is very unrealistic.

We’ve come to a day and age where our president is tweeting about his every move. Although I personally think his tweets show his immaturity, the fact that the president of the U.S. has used Twitter as a way to communicate politics gives us a perfectly good reason to do so as well. It keeps citizens informed, allowing change to happen.

Twitter can also be full of fake news and misleading topics. Just like teachers taught us in elementary school, not everything you find on the Internet is real. Do your research before retweeting something that might be completely untrue, and save yourself from the embarrassment. Some sources that could be considered credible are extremely conservative or liberal.

Social media has become an outlet for discussion about social problems and society’s grievances with the world. There are people that dislike the content that has consumed Twitter, but in reality, it’s important and is another way to inform vulnerable teens like us about what is currently going on. Our technologically based millennial age has broadened the horizons for the topic of politics and is benefitting Twitter users every day.