Modern political debate seems to be surrounded by negative political ads, conniving campaigning tactics, and disrespectful political rants. These have become the norm in our society. With the rise of the Internet, we have many great communication tools available, but something is missing.
We need a way to communicate effectively, respectfully, and clearly about what we want for our future. Resources like PeopleCount.org are working toward this goal.
Let’s look at some statistics:
People are going online to find political information. Seventy-three percent of Internet users reported using the Internet to find various forms of political information such as news, midterm election results, polls, and campaigning information.
People will continue to go online to find political information. One quarter of all U.S. adults (24 percent) got most of their news about the 2010 elections from the Internet, according to the Pew Research Center. This number has grown more than threefold since the 2002 campaign.
People don’t always like what they are reading online, especially in the social media realm. Fifty-five percent of Internet users feel the Internet increases the influence of extreme political views. And with 75 percent of social networking users posting content about politics, things can become negative quickly. In fact, 18 percent of social networking users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone for reasons related to negative political content such as offensive content and unconstructive arguing.
What I’m asking: Do political discussions online always have to be negative? Thankfully, some of the Pew Research Center’s statistics point to “no.”
Positive Statistics About Political Discussions Online
- 30 percent of Internet users feel the Internet reduces the influence of extreme views by giving ordinary citizens a chance to be heard
- 61 percent of users find the Internet exposes them to a wider range of political views
- 47 percent of social networking users have hit the “like” button in response to political content posted by others
- And surprisingly, 16 percent of social networking users have friended or followed someone because of the user’s political views
Avoiding The Negative And Embracing The Positive
This is great news and points toward more constructive conversations online. But let’s face the truth: we won’t all agree on political issues. So how can we — citizens and fellow consumers of online content — get along?
For instance, criticizing the views of others or only seeing your side of the story won’t help in the long-run. These mostly contribute to the outburst of negativity in political discourse. First, we too quickly take sides and argue, often repeating party lines designed to divide us. Second, we are frustrated with our current system, policy makers, and current events. This frustration often turns into misplaced anger and blame, especially if we’ve had our emotions stirred by angry talk-radio hosts. Lastly, the combination of not fully participating in politics — such as not doing research or only using media with a single bias — leads to misinformation, when we should be learning from all sides.
Instead, we can realize we’re all on the same team. America’s future belongs to all of us. We’ll suffer or prosper together. Building a promising future will be easier and more successful if we work together.
Moving forward, let’s move past these barriers and instead focus on these points when conducting political discussions:
- Respecting the opinions of others
- Accepting new ideas and viewpoints
- Holding our own views as limited and imperfect
Political discourse online encourages more dissection of current issues and political activism in the real world. So, let’s embrace the positive and orient ourselves to creating a respectful and constructive political atmosphere online.
Have you been involved in a political argument or rant online? If so, what could you have done differently to have made the discussion more constructive?
This is a very good write up, many people have become too much possessed with the support for political parties regardless of what they do. They defend their political party’s views even when they know that the wrong things are being done, they tend to forget that we are all in this together. We can only develop by harnessin the energy of every individual in the forward match of our country and no single individual can do more than we can do because on single individual is better than all of us.