Millennials turn to social media post-election to share reactions

After a turbulent presidential election in which Republican nominee Donald Trump beat out the favored Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton early last month, some are still coming to terms with the results.

Millennials aged 18-35 turned out to the polls in low numbers, but they’ve been some of the most outspoken since Trump’s victory. Many people, especially young voters, took to social media to express varied emotions afterward, but the emerging channel of communication took a front role in the election far before results rolled in.

Education of Voters

The majority of Portage County voted for Trump in the general election Nov. 8 with approximately 52 percent of ballots cast in his favor.

Many people had strong reactions about the election and took to social media to express their opinions.

After Trump’s election: "There are two Americas now."https://t.co/LGrXUgAMiZ

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 21, 2016

Some were upset the electoral college votes didn’t go in Clinton’s favor, while others rejoiced over Trump’s win when he secured 74 electoral votes.

you must all be so excited that Hillary Clinton losing the election made hating women openly cool &acceptable again, what a time to be alive

— Helena Fitzgerald (@helfitzgerald) November 21, 2016

Trump's Popularity Surges After Election. Because people are seeing a leader in action, not a politician. https://t.co/FT4V8f1KuC

— David Burke (@ConservativeTht) November 21, 2016

But how educated were voters on the presidential candidates before they went to the polls?

Hana Barkowitz, the president of the College Democrats at Kent State University, worked the polls on election day and noted several voters who were still undecided.

“They were walking in, not knowing who they were going to vote for,” Barkowitz said. “I respect more I think a very thought through vote, even though it’s not for the vote I want, as opposed to an uneducated vote.”

When it came to the Millennial vote, she saw students either really knew what they wanted in a candidate and what they wanted to see in this election, or they turned a cheek and didn’t care.

Barkowitz received backlash on a comment she made, questioning if people cared about voting if they didn’t register.

“If they cared enough they would have already been registered right?” asked Barkowitz. “I think we focused too much on registering and not enough on educating and excitement and I think that was a big downfall of this election.”

Educating voters is no easy task, said Michael Ensley, a political science associate professor at Kent State. About 85 percent of voters stick with their political party, while the other 15 percent of “swing voters” targeted by campaigns only see the message being broadcast through various media sources.

“People, for the most part, don’t actively seek out information about the candidates. They sort of listen to the news, look on social media feed or however people get their news,” Ensley said. “A lot of how voters are educated on the issues are not only what the campaigns are trying to do, but it’s more so what the media picks up on.”

The League of Women Voters (LWV), however, made it a main focus to educate voters throughout the election season.

“We use the opportunity when we register people to also begin that education process,” said Iris Meltzer, president of the League of Women Voters in Kent. Registering and educating went hand-in-hand for the league.

Each year, the LWV creates a print version of the voter’s guide, utilizes the website Vote411.org, hosts a candidate’s forum and, this year, created pamphlets for college students known as Voting 1-2-3. These cards were more specific to the needs of college students.

Meltzer explained how the LWV puts information on candidates out there, and then what people choose to do with that information is entirely up to them.

“All we can do is get the material out there, share it, tell people about it, encourage people to look at it,” Meltzer said. “Of course the reality is that people do read it and may or may not base their decision on that.”

For the LWV, educating voters doesn’t mean encouraging people to vote in one way or another. It’s simply making sure that a person’s vote is an educated vote.

“Know what you’re voting for, who you’re voting for,” Meltzer said.

 

 

Some blame the media for the outcome of the election. In a New York Times article examining what media did wrong during the presidential election, Maggie Haberman, a political correspondent for the New York Times, explained that polls on both sides were wrong, which was a tool normally relied on during elections.

A Vox article took it further, explaining when social media was factored in, some published stories weren’t true.

Meltzer said she isn’t a media expert, but she wanted to know more of what the candidate’s policies were going to be.

“It would have been nice for my perspective if there had been a focus on issues instead of the really out-there rhetorics,” she said.

Social Media Influence

Since Trump’s election, numerous news sites began speculating the effect “fake news” had on the outcome, spreading misinformed or outright wrong information disguised as facts. Fake news has a notorious presence on Facebook, a social media site The American Press Institute finds 91 percent of Millennials use. Of those Millennials, 88 percent reportedly receive a bulk of their news from the site.

Allegations against Facebook were so rampant post-election that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted twice about the site’s role in spreading fake news and its attempts to combat it in the future.

“Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99% of what people see is authentic,” Zuckerberg wrote in his initial post Nov. 12. “That said, we don’t want any hoaxes on Facebook.”

But after a swath of commenters refuted Zuckerberg’s claim of 99 percent of news being legitimate, he posted again Nov. 19 outlining strategies he intends to take to purge the site of fake news, including warnings on stories readers flag as false and working with journalists for their input.

“I think [social media] played a huge role for both good and for ill,” said Stephanie Smith, a communications professor at Kent State and former CIA agent.  

Smith said in addition to fake news within the U.S., Facebook was a vehicle for international influence. Russian propaganda machines wrote false articles that pulsed through the site, like one about Clinton taking medicine for Parkinson’s disease, Smith said.

On the other hand, she saw a lot more engagement surrounding the campaign on social media, and overall, she said it helped inform some accurately. Zuckerberg said through Facebook, more than 2 million people registered to vote.

However, speculators like Ensley don’t believe the idea of fake news could have had a major effect on voters’ decisions.

“People gravitated to that story that sort of reinforces their beliefs,” Ensley said. “You don’t have undecided voters out there fixated on fake news…They’ll hear some of it and it’s possible they’ll be influenced by it, but in some ways it’s a lot of red meat for supporters for the left or the right.”

As Zuckerberg said in his posts, though, ridding the site of false news altogether is technically complex, especially with global interaction. Social media sites like Facebook recommend posts for individual users based on what they’ve already viewed, creating an echo chamber that regurgitates similar information over and over.

Facebook isn’t the only perpetrator, either. Twitter also spreads fake news, but more than that, Trump used the site to his advantage throughout his campaign by Tweeting regularly and gaining attention.

“Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing,” Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital director, told news site Wired. “Twitter for Mr. Trump. And Facebook for fundraising.”

Although younger people make up a bulk of social media users, Smith said its effect on the election didn’t necessarily affect Millennials more than other generations.

“I think it’s very difficult to talk about Millennials without acknowledging they were not engaged with the candidates,” Smith said. “Not to suggest every Millennial wasn’t…but for the most part, they saw it on the Democratic side as a dynastic election where you just had another old American dynasty running, and on the Republican side, I think many Americans thought it was a joke, a reality series joke.”

It’s likely social media use will only pick up speed and grow as powerful tools for candidates in future campaigns. The growing number of sites don’t necessarily add up to voter education, though, Smith said–as suggested by the tens of thousands of write-in votes for Harambe, a gorilla.

“I think that suggests for all the communication vehicles we have, we still haven’t actually engaged as much, and that those communication vehicles haven’t exactly added to media literacy. Those are significant problems,” Smith said. “What’s really important is that readers examine and question stories.”

Response of Millennials

In a pre-election poll taken by the Center of Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), the research company focused on young people found Millennials aged 18-34 preferred Clinton at 49 percent vs. Trump at 28 percent, a 21-point difference. Its National Exit Poll, though, shows the actual results varied from pre-election attitudes: 55 percent voted for Clinton, while 37 percent voted Trump, closing that lead to 18 points.

When approached, many college-aged Millennials were apprehensive to speak on the election weeks later.

For Anthony Erhardt, a senior paralegal studies major and vice president of Kent State’s College Democrats, it took him about three to four days to process the results — and even a few missed classes.

Throughout the election cycle, Erhardt, who voted for Clinton, said he tried to remain optimistic, but in a cautious way.

Erhardt worked on President Obama’s re-election campaign and noticed a difference between that election and this previous cycle.

“Very different feeling,” he said. “(A) feeling of kind of dread… and a lot of people not being satisfied with either choice, is what I’ve gathered.”

Erhardt was most afraid of what would happen to his health care with the outcome of this election.

“I have care under the Affordable Care Act under Obama Care,” he said. “So, Donald Trump making a campaign promise to repeal it kind of scares me. I don’t want to lose my health care.”

Aside from himself, he was most fearful for his LGBTQ, Muslim, Mexican, African American and female friends.

“Seeing their reactions on election night kind of told the whole story about what the general sense in those communities of what Donald Trump was in this election,” Erhardt said.

Erhardt said with the rise of technology, he noticed a majority of Millennials had some sort of opinion on the election–not necessarily informed opinions, but they were aware of the election in general, he said. 

 

On election night, the College Democrats, College Republicans and Undergraduate Student Government came together for a watch party at Brewhouse in downtown Kent.

“I looked around and saw my gay friends with their heads down crying, I saw my female friends with their heads down crying (and) I saw my African American friends with their heads down crying,” he said. “I’ll never forget that.”

When Trump was officially called as president-elect, Erhardt said he stayed up all night and cried as well.

“It was a rough night,” he said.

Moving forward, Erhardt said he and the rest of the Dems are focusing on other pivotal races, such as the Democratic National Committee race and the House Minority Leader race.

“That’s really big, that’s really important,” Erhardt said. “So, I’m all in, I’m all focused on those races.”  

On the other hand, Jake DeScenna, a senior construction management major, voted for Trump.

DeScenna said throughout the election, he felt there was too much emphasis and coverage on “irrelevant and unrelated issues with all candidates.”

“I would have liked to see more content and discussion on the real political issues concerning our country,” he added.

Unlike Erhardt, DeScenna said he didn’t have many fears throughout this election. He said the outcome — regardless of which candidate won — would have been what the American people wanted.

DeScenna added he didn’t feel there would be any reason for any group or culture to fear Trump.

“[Trump] ran for president and was elected the same as every other president before him,” he said. “I truly believe he wants the best for our country and all of its people.”

On election night, DeScenna said he was ecstatic as he watched each state slowly turn red, and even more so when Clinton conceded.

“I am very excited to see Donald Trump ‘Make America Great Again,’” DeScenna said.

 

 

 

See how educated millennials were when they voted this Nov., and how they reacted to the election of Trump #JMCRPP https://t.co/ADSHgHqZmv

— Ben Orner (@Ben_Orner) November 30, 2016

https://twitter.com/crayolaaa48/status/804004407620706304

Did you think fake news affected the election? We looked into it for you #KSURPP https://t.co/pAMOu6UCcE

— Alyssa Schmitt (@AlyssaSchmitCJN) November 30, 2016

How fearful are Millennials post-election? https://t.co/w47CjIBTs2#JMCRPP2016

— Dana Miller (@danamillerKSU) November 30, 2016

how did millennials respond after Donald Trump's election into Presidential office? read our collaboration story: https://t.co/cuoUwQ7Yjc

— kelly powell (@kellpoww) November 30, 2016

 

Millennials didn’t decide the presidential election, but their socialization platform did play a huge role—read more:https://t.co/agC4AYo7hA

— Theresa Cottom (@Theresa_Cottom) December 1, 2016

Alyssa Schmitt – writing about education of millennial voters
Tess Cottom – infographic about millennials and Trump’s policies, contribution to writing
Carolyn Pippin – infographic and chart about voting statistics, contribution to writing
Ben Orner – video package about reactions to election results
Tyler Carey – man-on-the street video about millennial voting
Dana Miller – contribution to writing
Kelly Powell – infographic about how millennials felt while voting, infographic from Professor Dawes interview