The Magnifying Glass
How will future candidates handle an entire lifetime of mistakes documented on the Internet?
We live in a society where each of our lives can be magnified and displayed on social media and the news. Because of online news outlets, 24-hour news channels, and social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, we are constantly inundated with information about elected officials’ lives and beliefs. Every word a candidate publicly says is instantly available at the fingertips of millions of Americans. A single sentence can dominate the news for days, damaging reputations or rallying supporters. From Hillary Clinton’s recent statements about how she is held to the “Hillary Standard” to Donald Trump’s statements about illegal immigrants, Muslims, and more, these one-liners dominate the media. The media has been able to gather previously unimaginable amounts of information about each of the candidates’ pasts, but they still do not have same kind of access to candidates’ personal lives that we now see openly displayed by millennials on social media.
Millennials, the generation which grew up in the era of the Internet, use social media to stay on top of the news. In fact, as the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found in a 2015 report, 88% of millennials get the majority of their news from Facebook. Every single article that these young people like, comment on, or share is recorded by Facebook. As a result, political beliefs are often on display for their friends, or the whole world, to see. Raging comments about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump can be accessed by anyone who “friends” them and looks over their profile. Employers and landlords can access their public information through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Their lives, essentially, are on display. These impacts will only be magnified for those who wish to be the next generation of America’s leaders.
Many of these young people who care about politics, public policy, and the economy wish to become to politicians or public figures. Young people who are actively working on the campaigns of today’s leaders and are extremely passionate about the issues facing our country are often vocal on social media. These people, myself included, are eager to share their ideas and opinions with their friends and followers. We have discussions and debates on each other’s or on news outlets’ posts. All the while we are focusing on the issues we deem most important and developing our own belief systems. Unlike previous generations, our journey to find our own ideas is, for the most part, a public affair. Every single comment made on a news source is recorded. Every single political post is saved to our timelines. Every single stance on Facebook has the potential for the whole world to see it. When the young leaders of this next generation, my generation, begin their first campaigns, their whole social media history will be at everyone’s fingertips.
Frankly, it is frightening to know that every comment made on a post could eventually be splattered across the entire internet. If, in ignorance, someone makes a racist remark, the citizens of their district might one day be handed flyers with their youthful mistakes painted across the cover. Future leaders of America will have their old views blasted across social media. For example, those who publicly support Gary Johnson due to the flaws they see in Secretary Clinton and the DNC might one day be attacked for “abandoning the party” if they ever run as Democrat. Furthermore, if Secretary Clinton became the next President, and did an outstanding job, these young leaders would face scrutiny for fighting against her. Their old beliefs will become even more of a liability in an era of unfettered access.
As people discover new ideas and look at new evidence, they switch from blue to red, red to purple, and so on. But now, the normal belief shifts that inevitably accompany adolescence are opportunities to paint candidates as indecisive or dishonest. Even though these kinds of attacks on politicians’ records and backgrounds regularly occur now, their impacts and effects will be amplified substantially through increased access to the lives of candidates. A simple phrase from a Facebook debate thirty years ago could be uncovered and blasted across social media. Unlike the present, where most information on a candidate’s young life has to be obtained from people who knew him, evidence of future candidates youthful beliefs and ideas will be coming directly from them, via social media. Having called a person ignorant or idiotic on Facebook might be used by opponents to paint a candidate as rude, inconsiderate, or narrow minded — even if things have changed. The massive amount of information can be used to find potential one-liners with the power to destroy a candidate’s chances of winning an election. All a person has to do is friend or follow him. The past will no longer just come back to haunt candidates; instead it will tread beside them, every single step on the campaign trail.
With the past so close to the present, there is a constant battle between standing up for what one believes in and being afraid that one will change one’s mind. The lives of the nation’s next generation of leaders will be open books to the public, and so few future leaders realize that. More and more, I find myself thinking that we should perhaps take a step back from social media. However, discussion helps us grow, debate helps us learn, and examination of new ideas help us flourish. Maybe the solution is to remember that in the future, the people of America could be watching; post with integrity and respect towards others, and understand that our past views and actions will be judged alongside our future decisions. We, the next generation of leaders, need to understand that our ideas and beliefs are no longer private, but also remember that it should not stop us from standing up for our ideas and fighting for what is right.
