Election results cause tension on social media

Weeks after the election results announced that Donald Trump was president-elect of the United States, millions of posts on social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter have contained political commentary, often leading to dispute between family and friends. Social media users are have posted political “rants” in both disappointment and in joy of the results.The arguing back-and-fourth with one another in the comments of a Facebook post or replies to a tweet has caused friends and family members to deleting each other off of social media, and wreck real-life relationships worldwide. “You go on Facebook and people are bragging about how many people they’ve unfriended in the last day because they didn’t realize how many of their Facebook friends are sexist, egotistical, and racist,” Sandy Foley, a sophomore marketing major said. “There’s really high tensions, everyone’s looking for a reason to be mad at everyone else, and someone to blame their problems on, so they’re getting mad at people for having different opinions because it’s hard for them to not have control.” Social media added fuel to the fire like never before during this election for this year. Candidates were talked about online during the extent of their campaigns, both being labeled as unfavorable for their parties or praised by them. “I think social media, kind of manipulated and brainwashed people into believing one side because on your news feed you can tailor what you want to see,” Steven Martienz a sophomore public policy major said. He continued by commenting on the closed-mindedness of citizens during this election season, “you're so convinced that your perspective is the right perspective so the opposition automatically comes to you as a threat… this can affect personal lives and I think that’s very dangerous.” Sandy Foley a sophomore marketing major said “talking politics can ruin a friendship in a second.” When asked about her own experience regarding this issue she explained that the results of the election has caused friends to become distant. Her best friends are members of the LGBTQ community and the election has caused a fringe in their relationship. She explained that they’ve had a hard time understanding each other’s views, especially when it came to the fear her LGBTQ members experienced after the election results were announced. “Now we have to tip toe around the conversation because you don’t really want to get into it because you don’t want to hurt your friends and they don’t want to hurt you,” said Foley. When asked what there is to do in order to solve this out lash, Lara Van Patten, junior political science and global studies major, believes the “dust will settle and people will see that it’s not that big of a deal…I think we need to put aside who he [Donald Trump] is as a person and think about how he's going to run the government at a non-subjective standpoint.” Questioning who we are as a country, Stevens Martinez explained, “There’s always going to be two sides of a certain issue but you can't just attack and demoralize the opposition. That's not who we are as Americans, were American’s for a reason.” Martinez also gave advice to those who want to avoid wrecking a friendship over the election. He said, “Whatever political perspective you have, it may be opposing perspectives, at the end of the day you put that to the side because you're human.”