Election 2016 Invades Social Media, And Millennials Can’t Hide

STORY BY ABIGAIL KELLY, JAKE STANLEY, ANGELA HATCHER,
JACK EVANS and CHARLES BLADES
VIDEO BY MIXIE MECHLEY, HALEY LUTHER and MACKENZIE CLUNE
Miami University journalism students
Joe Ittel, a 21-year-old farmer in Butler County, posts his political opinions on social media, seeing it as a forum of opinion rather than fact.
Chloe Collins, a senior at Northern Kentucky University, does not post about Election 2016 on Facebook and other social media. But she does use it to gather information from friends and family.
And for Markus Rask, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are great places to post political jokes.

'It is hilarious'

“I am really happy this election is happening. I think it is hilarious,” Rask, a Miami University junior, says with a chuckle.

But, he adds, “It has exhausted me. When I am on (social media), it's the constant of all this information that I don't need to have. But that is why it’s bad, it’s like smoking or something, it’s just a bad habit.”

It’s been eight years since President Obama’s groundbreaking use of social media to connect with young voters in the 2008 election. Today, social media is a critical political tool to engage millennials -- a generation with historically low voter turnout -- on platforms they mastered as children.

And many millennials hate the online political typhoon, or have written it off as entertainment.

“Delete your account.”

“Lock her up.”

“Crooked Hillary.”

“And a Basket of Deplorables.”

Historical context

Sitting in the foyer of Miami’s Farmer School of Business, Rask pulls out his phone to share some of his most recent posts to explain how he participates on Twitter in a lighthearted way.

“I think of elections in more of a historical context,” he explains. “I will make a joke about Hillary Clinton or about Donald Trump, or whoever it is because I think they are both kind of crazy.”

Outside of the debates, most Clinton and Trump sparring has been on social media. Trump, with his uncensored rhetoric, has redefined the modern method of political promotion through Twitter, selling himself while rebranding opponents as “Little Marco” and “Crooked Hillary.”

A Pew Research Center poll in September found that 19 percent of Trump supporters said his personality was their main reason for their backing.

Can't look away

With around a third of 18- to 29-year-olds getting their news from social media, many say they are overwhelmed by the political climate. But they can’t seem to look away from the vitriol, passion and grandstanding coming from candidates, friends and family.

Collins, the NKU student, says she has an open mind while scrolling through news feeds filled with politicized content.

“I try to listen to all opinions, and I try to understand them,” she says. “So I don’t think I would ever completely block someone; I would prefer to learn from them.”

Yet, writes tech culture reporter Marissa Lang in the San Francisco Chronicle, “In 12 months, the country has collectively spent more than 1,284 years reading about Donald Trump on social media.”

Clinton has also worked hard on her social media presence. Her infamous “Delete your account” tweet, directed at Trump in June, was retweeted 500,000 times and had over 670,000 likes.

And that’s the point some worry about: Millennials “like,” share and debate politics online without ever getting face-to-face with ideological foes.

'So much crap'

“It is more exhausting than engaging. You see so much crap that people are posting that’s probably not true or might have a hint of truth that is just blown out of proportion,” says Ittel, the farmer, as he sits in Oxford’s Jimmy John's.

Ittel got a two-year degree in diesel technology from the University of Northwest Ohio and now works on his family’s sod farm near Oxford. He primarily gets news from more traditional outlets like CNN, but sees social media as a place to express his own views.

“I do post my political opinions quite a bit,” Ittel admits, and he trolls other people’s posts for entertainment. “There is just a lot of funny stuff on the internet that people believe, and I think it is funny that people believe it. Most of the things I share are Onion articles.”

For Ittel, the humor of this campaign has become outweighed by the divisiveness playing out on social platforms. As the actual voting nears, he feels a growing estrangement.

“I am ready for the election to be over with,” he explains.

But finding something new to talk about has proven to be difficult for many millennials, like Collins.

“It’s kind of hard to escape it,” she says.

This package was produced by students in a political reporting class at Miami University.