As most of you have probably seen on Facebook, the issue of equal rights have swept across social media. Igniting debates on equal right profile pictures and statuses. The issue of equal rights and same-sex marriage has hit Supreme courts. Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage, is the debated issue. Pro and anti-Prop 8 groups have been debating each other non-stop. Personally, I have seen some Facebook posts hit up 50+ comments, all debating the issue of equal rights. According the article, support for equal rights is growing. However, what brought this article to my attention was how big of a "chess piece" this has become for politicians. Many politicians, even President Barack Obama, have seen a greater support because of his pro-equal rights view. What do you all think of: 1) Equal rights? The article says we "youngsters" are the most liberal. 2) The ethics of using your stand on this issue for political power?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/03/gay-marriage-and-supreme-court
3 comments:
It is interesting to learn the true power of social media and Facebook especially. I think it would be interesting to see if republicans and democrats treat Facebook favorably for fear of the company in some way using its mass amount of viewership to affect people's views of the company. I think it is dangerous for so much discussion to go through one company's service because politicians are incentivized to therefore act favorably on their behalf.
I don't think that discussion on Facebook is a bad thing because it is a reflection of what individuals think rather than the whole company. I'm not surprised that the article calls the "youngsters" the most liberal because usually each generation pushes for a social change that the generation before them did not, thus making each generation more socially liberal overall.
While I do think the use of social media has improved awareness on issues, I also do think it creates a false illusion of participation for many "youngsters." The changing of profile pictures in reality did very little to help/hurt the debate at issue in the Supreme Court. In fact, the Supreme Court may be the government institution that may be the most impervious to public opinion in the Western Hemisphere. In terms of politicians, I think they're recognizing the fact that this is a very important issue for many people in the U.S. and them taking stances on the issue based on what their constituents would desire wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing in my opinion.
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