Besides being involved in my union politics, I’m much more active in national politics. I think many of us became more involved after the 2016 election and I am one of them. While I have always voted, I didn’t know a ton about the various issues before. And I wasn’t paying attention to the multiple candidates until it got down to the last few. I did try to be informed, but I realize now how little I knew and what I was missing.
I know I have watched primary debates before, but again I think I know much more now than at any other time. Before they were more like background noise and now I’m really watching and making sure I don’t miss information. I take a lot of pride in making sure I pay attention and am trying to be informed about what each candidate stands for. Although this year, it’s much harder to be on top of things since there are so many people running for president. I know that the field will be reduced soon, but I still want to be educated at this early stage.
There are a bunch of pros and cons with splitting up the first debate and I don’t necessarily need to go into what I think about them. But it is giving me 2 nights to watch what’s happening and continue my political education. And with many other things that most people watch live, I watch live and enjoy participating on social media while watching. I do most of my posting on Twitter for these things because that seems to be the best place to do that. And it seems like a lot of other people do the same which makes these debates and other live events so much more exciting.
For the first debate, I did do as much live tweeting as I thought I would. The debate didn’t have as many moments that I wanted to comment on. I think the time limit did restrict things a bit too much and the candidates were really focused on saying all of their favorite talking points (I’m writing this post before the second debate, so I have no idea if it goes any better). I also ended up getting some phone calls that I had to take while the debate was happening so I had to pause it. I do sometimes still tweet along with live things even if I’m behind, but I was more focused on paying attention than being funny.
But even when I wasn’t tweeting, I was still following along on Twitter and seeing what other people were saying. A lot of the tweets were funny and snarky like they typically are during events like this. There is a lot that can be made fun of when someone says something that could easily be taken another way. But there were also the more serious and fact-checking tweets. I love being able to see almost immediately if a statement someone says is accurate or what may be misleading about it. I think that it has made it much easier for voters to understand if a candidate is saying something real or if they are changing the truth to make themselves look better. It’s one of the real positives of social media that I think benefits the country.
I have lots of ways that I stay informed and involved with politics even when there isn’t a live event happening. I listen to many political podcasts and follow different news sites and political commentators. I am aware that there is a bias with many people writing about things, but I try to keep that in consideration when using that information. There are seriously so many ways to make sure you know what is happening in the country and in the world and I do want to take advantage of that. I also know that there is a risk of burnout so I try to not go overboard. But there is just so much to know about that I can’t help going down rabbit holes from time to time. But at least I know that within those deep dives I’ll find at least a little political snark on social media.
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