I’ve written about election season quite a few times on here. In the past, I don’t think I had as much to say as I did this year. And part of that is because my responsibilities and leadership role grows each election season. But the other part is that this time things were so different from what we are used to.
So often in the past, we talk about how social media isn’t everything and how important it is to be face to face or one on one with someone when discussing union politics. It’s better to have a real conversation with a friend than to blast out an impersonal message. And it’s better to have a conversation that is more than the character limit of a tweet.
But this year, in a way social media was almost everything. We were all still messaging our friends one on one and some of us had phone calls or small gatherings to talk with others about why we are running or why we are a part of Unite For Strength. But so much of campaigning this election season was on social media (mainly Twitter from what I could see). And that also meant that we had a lot more attacks on social media as well.
I know I see more than what most would see since I run the social media accounts for UFS, but I know a lot of people saw similar things to what I was seeing. And so much of it was misinformation (such as not understanding what our dues went to versus when people paid premiums for the union healthcare). Part of my job with running our social media is seeing when people have questions or they have misinformation and making sure they get the correct information. I might not always be the person who can answer it, but I can find the person who is. And it is so rewarding when I can help someone get the information they need or when something they were concerned about is either already fixed or being addressed and a fix is in the works.
And I will say, a majority of what I was seeing on social media during election season was positive, especially from the people I know. So many people were listening to each other, helping people that needed help, and just being good and kind. For all the times I was overwhelmed with seeing attacks that may have had a lot of misleading information, I’d see multiple things that made my heart happy.
And now, election season is almost done. Ballots are counted starting on Thursday morning and the results should be known by late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Then we can move to getting ready for the National Convention, which will be virtual this year. And I’ll still keep working on the UFS social media since that is something I do all year. But it’s very different during election season and I’m looking forward to when it’s a bit more calm. And before I know it, it will be time for another election season or vote of some sort and things will ramp up and be crazy again.
But for now, I’m just proud of the campaign we did for this election. I’m so proud of the work others did on social media that helped to make my work easier or better. And no matter what happens, I’m happy with the work we did as a slate and how we represented ourselves.
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