Overwhelming Political Media on Facebook Leads to More Friends
The article below describes the effect that Facebook has had on the upcoming election. Facebook Newsfeed’s have been overwhelmingly filled with political articles, videos, and pictures that have been viewed many times and have been shared over and over again. Regardless of if you are a republican, democrat, or neither, it is impossible to avoid the political media. As the election is approaching, people have been more likely to express their opinion, and Facebook is the perfect way to do so. Facebook has made it very easy for third party news and advocacy pages, made just for Facebook, to make a statement. Since these pages, such as “Occupy Democrats”, “The Angry Patriot”, “US Chronicle”, etc. are made just for Facebook, they have just as many viewers as corporate news-centers and have caused the flow of political media on Facebook Newsfeed’s to inflate.
Getting closer to the election, the amount of political media on Newsfeeds has spiraled. It is basically impossible to avoid the political media when logging onto Facebook. Because of this, the possibility for connection between those of the same political party has increased, which in turn can increase the number of connections an individual has in their network. Those of the same party are able to like, comment, or re-share any article, video or picture posted, even if the person who originally posted the form of media is not their “friend” on Facebook. When doing so, not only does a person’s network expand, but also they are more likely to find more friends who share the same opinions. Within a person’s network, they definitely have friends who feel the same way as they do, politically. This can cause more triadic closures to occur within a person’s network, as it is easy to connect two friends, with the same political views, by noticing their action on a post. Commenting, liking, or sharing a post is an easy way to know what political views another person has, and is an easy conversation-starter for new friendships.
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