Practicum 2 – Kaidence Sampsel

Questions: 

1. In what ways do you think that social media influences presidential campaigns?
2. Based on your understanding, what can influence one’s perception of a candidate to be hindered?
3. Do you think that the constitution needs to be revised?
4. Why do you think younger generations are more hesitant to vote than older ones?
5. Do you believe the government has too much power?

Person 1: 9th Grader

1. Social media shows opinions and facts about the campaign, so it can influence your decisions based on the facts and opinions of other people.
2. Other people’s opinions can influence one’s perception of a candidate to be hindered. Especially if that person doesn’t have a political opinion on someone, other people’s opinions can drive them to lead to the decisions they make on each person
3. Not sure on what the constitution consists of.
4. I believe that younger generations are more hesitant than older generations because they were never taught. They were never taught how to vote by older generations. Granted it’s kind of self explanatory, but they might not know how to do it correctly and that’s what leads them to not vote.
5. I don’t really get into government stuff.

Person 2: College Student

1. One main way that social media is influencing presidential campaigns is by comments. Most of the time you see presidential campaigns on your televisions, and this only gives the listener one side of the story. We learn about politics from a young age. When those commercials come on and there is a child in the room, all they hear is family members start talking about politics. The child will then go along with whatever side of politics their family members are on, because they have no frame of reference in order to make their own unbiased opinions. When social media started becoming a great platform for campaigns, specifically presidential campaigns, we saw a shift in our younger generations changing their political beliefs. This is because when a younger person is scrolling through social media, they are able to see comments. So when that person sees a presidential campaign and clicks onto the comment page, they are met with people who have all different views. Those comments can make people rethink their political views and look further into different sides, off of those social media platforms. This is why more and more young people have become so vocal about politics in the last 5 years. They are learning a lot about politics through social media and the comment section, which is influencing their political views and biases. 
2.  I think that one way to change someone’s political affiliation with a candidate is if that candidate does something really wrong. What I mean by this is it is very difficult to change someone’s mind, especially in a political way. Sometimes the main reason someone stops favoring a candidate is that candidate either says or does something wrong that the majority of that political party disagrees with the candidate, this would sway your opinion.
3. I do not think that the constitution needs to be revised, I think that each part of the constitution was put into place for an important reason. 
4. The older generations likely experienced World War Two firsthand as well as the Vietnam war. Because of this we see a lot of mistrust of the government in older generations and so they are more likely to vote. This is because they know that their vote means something and they have seen firsthand or in the news the consequences of either not voting or not being allowed to vote in other countries. Younger generations are more likely to not vote because they either are not educated enough in politics to feel confident in voting, or they think that their vote won’t matter. This is an issue because everyone’s vote does matter, even if the political party you want to win does not, your vote got them one step closer to winning. Sadly I think the younger generation did not think of that. From what I have seen on social media, I think younger generations are starting to vote more frequently, in all types of elections.
5. I do think that for certain situations. For example I do not like the fact that the government had the power to decide that Roe V. Wade should be overturned. I am very wary about certain aspects of the government, specifically pertaining to how the government will use AI and technology. But I am thankful for the government we have because the majority of US citizens have the power to vote and travel between states freely, and I will never take that for granted. So while I am wary of the government and its powers at times, I also am glad we have those systems in place.

Person 3: Aunt

1. I  believe that most information is received on social media. Many don’t watch TV and newspapers are almost obsolete. It is a fast way to get information out and basically free. Too bad it is filtered and only one side is heard.
2. Used to be that you were not allowed to say things that were untrue about a candidate for fear of being charged with defamation of character.  Apparently that is not true or doesn’t apply anymore.  Many lies or exaggerations during campaigns. 
3. No. It needs to be enforced 
4. They are not taught history that explains why we have inflation,  recession,  wars, etc
5. I think that the premise I correct is about having the house and senate voting for us. Too bad that votes are bought  by crooked congressmen

I enjoyed doing this assignment as it pushed me to have a better understanding of government and politics in order to create questions for others to answer. It also showed me that not everyone has the same understanding of politics. I think that this assignment should be used in the future as it helps students to really think in order to create questions surrounding politics, as well as getting to know their peers’ opinions on their questions.