Like many social media users, I was irritated by the influx of commentary from viewers during the presidential debates. In a matter of hours, my Twitter feed had transformed into a political conveyor belt of opinions, facts, mudslinging, mockery and quotes. The information overload made it difficult to establish exactly what I believed as an individual because I was so distracted by the cyber world.

Apparently I’m not alone. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project stated that nearly 1 in 5 social network users had blocked, unfriended or unfollowed someone because of political postings that upset them.

According to Twitter’s own handle @gov, 7.2 million people tweeted about the second presidential town hall-style debate on Oct. 16 between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Thirty-five percent of tweets mentioned Romney, while 25 percent mentioned Obama. The tweeting peaked at 109,560 tweets per minute during a question to Romney about immigration.

In 140 characters, citizens of the world including @karlrove, @taggromney and first lady @michelleobama were speaking out on topics like energy, environment, foreign policy and taxes. According to @gov, the most popular topic on Twitter was the economy with 28 percent of tweets referencing it in some way.  

Time Magazine cited a few of their favorite tweets:

“@billmaher: Mitt is the kind of prep school bully who tells the president of the United States ‘you’ll get your chance.’”

“@marypols: I’m a single mother and I just can’t stop my 8 year-old from running around with his AK-47. I really need a husband.”

“@ariannahuff: Romney got from the 2nd amendment to out-of-wedlock children faster than Paul Ryan didn’t run that marathon.”

While there are Twitter handles dedicated to fact checking like @factcheckdotorg and @thecaucus, many tweets can be misleading, especially for undecided voters. There is little accountability on Twitter, so you may end up sifting through hundreds of “Romney’s binder” tweets before finding any accurate information.

Irritating as it may be, it is only fair to acknowledge that social media is effectively transforming the younger generation’s involvement in politics.

According to a University of Chicago study by New Media and Youth Political Action called “Participatory Politics,” the recognition of people as social beings, embedded in friendship, interest and identity-based networks, help youth to navigate politics and facilitate political and civic participation.

In other words, young adults recognize what’s cool, and they respond to it. The more they’re involved in interest-driven activities like social media and pop culture, the more engaged they are in political activity.

The same study also concluded that it’s easier to express personal preference on candidates or issues that are appealing to younger generations today. Social media allows for our youth to be a part of defining politics, rather than feeling subject to the beliefs of “political elites.”

Today, political events like the town hall debates are not an evening TV special that your grandpa watches, half asleep. In the digital era, it’s a social thing and it’s prompting a lot of kids to look into the issues and attempt to understand them. The University of Chicago study cited that young people who engaged in at least one act of participatory politics were almost twice as likely to report voting in 2010 as those who did not.

After finding this study, I began to reconsider my irritation surrounding politics and social media. If the information is reaching our youth, in any form, isn’t that exactly what we’ve been hoping for in generations past?

Instead of judging the accuracy, humor and opinions of the tweets, I tried to look at Twitter as an ongoing conversation between women and men, young and old, every religion and every race from all over the world. A conversation that is absolutely necessary in helping to shape the views of our youth and ultimately, the views of our future.

Carly Samuelson can be reached at samu5380@stthomas.edu.