(Akiit.com) It’s safe to say that technology has had a massive impact on our society. We check our phones as soon as we wake up in the morning, tell our loved ones goodnight over video calls before going to bed, and to keep à jour with everything that is happening in the world. Social media was around before the 2016-election, though, yet it rose to a level of prominence during both the Trump campaign and the Brexit discussions in the UK.
So what will technology baffle us with during the next election a few years down the road? While most of us hope to see less circulation of questionable news online, there’s also the game-changing introduction of virtual reality and livestreaming on social media.
Here is a handful of the most exciting technological changes to look forward to the next time you’re ushered to the voting booth.
Rise in one-to-one campaigning
We’re used to depending on the Internet by now, but it can sometimes be hard to notice the subtle changes that are constantly happening around us. The average broadband and mobile connection speed rises each year, making it a bit easier to watch those videos on the go and even livestreaming.
You bet the candidates for the 2020-election will take advantage of this, and you can certainly expect a tremendous increase in video campaigns as well as one-to-one campaigns through messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
You’re destined to meet more bots on the Internet over the next couple of years, and many social media users have already started to gravitate towards more secluded chat-groups rather than the open landscape of Facebook and Twitter. It’s great stuff if you enjoy following the election and want to be randomly approached by bots online – if not, it’s probably better to just turn your phone off and hide inside for a while.
More focus on minorities
Social media created a chaotic news landscape for the electorate last year, but the open platforms don’t have to mean bad or fake news exclusively. It’s easy to focus on the negative aspects of upvotes, trending topics, and how easily manipulated these algorithms actually are – yet, we tend to forget what’s made social media so great, in the first place.
Even parts of social media that seems more cringeworthy than intellectual may become a part of future elections; smartmatic allows the electorate to take a selfie for voting authentication, making it a safer procedure than previously. Twitter has also given a voice to those who previously felt unheard, and it makes it easier to show strength even though it’s not in numbers.
Just think about #BlackLivesMatter or protesting the political status quo of a country as with the Arab Spring; social media is a fantastic medium when we weed out all the nonsense. You and I need to be on the forefront of it, though, and teach each other to spot fake news when we see it.
Teenagers will be voting during the next election, and it’s important to tackle fake news before it tightens its grasp on our news aggregators even more. Talk politics and fake news at home, first of all, and give them the tools to spot a sensational headline on their own. They’ll be casting their votes, after all, and they should be based on actual news and figures.
Staff Writer; Sherry Hall