Sharing Political Opinions: Something we can all 'like'

By MARIAH YOUNG

I’m losing friends. Facebook friends, that is. If you look at my Facebook timeline, you will see a slew of political posts going back to sometime around January. Between that and my constant political tweets telling people to go vote, I have lost around 35 followers on Twitter and 72 Facebook friends, but who is counting?

I will admit that, when I go to get my daily dose of social media, I am annoyed at all the political posts that I am forced to look at, but it isn’t the political ads or candidate bashing that annoys me. It isn’t even the people who think Obama is a Kenyan dictator. No, my dear friends, it is the people who take the time out of their “busy” day, as their earlier status let me know, to tell people that they shouldn’t post about politics, and if they aren’t old enough to vote they shouldn’t even think about it.

Maybe it’s just me being a political news junkie, but I enjoy seeing people our age and younger active in this political election. I even enjoy the posts that bash the candidate I prefer. It shows that our generation is actively thinking about something other than booze, sex and “50 Shades of Grey.” But, it seems like the majority of the people I know seem to disagree.

I’ve seen Facebook posts and tweets range from the typical “I don’t want to see you mention a word about this debate if you can’t vote,” to the weird and threatening posts of “If I see another post about this election I’m going to punch someone in the balls.”

My lack of male reproductive parts could be one reason I don’t find this threatening, or maybe it’s the fact that the threat is on the Internet, far away from me. Maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t talked to these people in years. I don’t really know, but their posts are ineffective yet seem to be more prominent than political opinions showing up on my newsfeed.

According to rockthevote.com, as young college students we are a part of the 44 million eligible young voters and we represent more than one-fifth of the electorate. Both political parties have been fighting for our votes and that is something that we should appreciate. No matter which candidate you believe should win, we should urge everyone to discuss politics and act on their words by voting.

Not everyone can be as nerdy and informed about politics as some of us, but we should be ecstatic that they want to talk about politics and get involved. We should encourage people to voice their opinions and go vote–not attempt to silence them.

Instead of telling the children who cannot vote to “shut their mouths,” we should tell them to get involved and help with the “Rock the Vote” campaign. The 15 year-olds who are not able to vote but are speaking their opinions will probably grow up to be the boss of you naysayers, I’m just warning you all.

Despite how grammatically incorrect their posts may be, we should read them with an open mind. Looking at their opinions could change your own or just confirm what you always thought: your friends can’t spell. Either way, you will learn something new.

I do hope that my posts, and this article, have been annoying enough to inspire my friends to go vote, even if it is just to spite me. So get out there, Millennials; annoy all of your friends by talking about politics. When they unfriend you, just remember this: at least you will have something to talk about at a job interview other than the latest episode of Honey Boo Boo.