Letter: How did social media, young voters impact election?

Life without social media is difficult to fathom. The popular sites seem to have been around for as long as we can remember. This is especially the case for young voters (18-29), who find themselves on social media more than any other age group. With life so digitalized, the impact on the outside world is guaranteed. In this case, I would like to focus on the 2016 presidential election.

From the first campaigns, there was plenty said about the candidates on my Twitter feed: They loved Sanders, hated Trump, and were practically offended by Clinton. When Sanders dropped out of the race, the heartbreak amongst 18-29-year-olds was apparent. Yet, they still didn’t like Clinton. The options of Trump, Clinton or a third-party vote weren’t good enough. At first, an idea that enough votes could elect a third-party candidate spread.

Hardly a few days before the election, those who had spoken poorly of Clinton realized that something like that wouldn’t work, and suddenly endorsed her. By then, it was too late. Far too many people had already voted third-party, settled for Trump, or had not voted period. It’s interesting to ponder how much this impacted the election results.

This story was originally published November 24, 2016 at 4:06 AM with the headline "Letter: How did social media, young voters impact election?."