Can 140 characters really determine the next president of the United States? You’re probably telling yourself that can’t be possible, but, in this generation, that’s a question that majority of the population has proven true.  Social media scrutiny has become the shameful force that drives political campaigns and voter trends. The media has created a gateway for political candidates to reach-out to millennials, however it has become an addition to the political stupidity that takes place.

The bitter truth behind the mission of political campaigns it to discredit the other candidates. This brings the reason why today’s politics have become a disgrace to the office they are running for.  Americans are more concerned with trends on places like twitter that actual plans in office. These trends, being both positive and negative, has made the ability to effect the voter turnout with the slightest of ease. This age group  alone takes up more than a third of the population, combined with the effects of sharing to friends and family, has the potential to influence more the half the voting population.

Political campaigns that does not have the advantage of social media exposure has been shown to fall in polls. Social media has taken the opportunity to be the center of Americans lives on a day-to-day basis. This, without the knowledge of most people, affect the way they vote. Take for an example, the two leading candidate in the primary elections, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, has use social media to their advantage. Donald Trump, leading for the Republican Party, has an overwhelming fan base of 7.32 million followers on twitter. Second in line is Hilary Clinton, leading for the Democratic Party, has a large fan base of 5.82 million followers on twitter. Following that would be Bernie Sanders, second in the Democratic Party, with 1.82 million followers and Ted Cruz, second in the Republican Party, with little over 1 million followers. The numbers of followers these candidates shown the same order in there standings for election. Could it be a coincidence?

Society has evolved around social media. People have embedded their social media into the daily routine. Political candidates have seen, and taken advantage of social media to influence voters. Political arguments and debates are done via Twitter and Facebook. These stunts pulled by candidates affects the voting trends among majority of the population to favor their campaign. The stupidity of feuds that take place on social media has overshadowed the true nature in the reasons to vote for someone. I take pride in saying I am not one of the victims of this scrutiny. Can the rest of the population say the same?