With the age of social media expanding to include more and more people, it’s common to see opinions spread throughout the population. And the upcoming presidential election is not a topic people have strayed away from.
As public figures come out with endorsements for who they want in the president’s chair, their close followers often follow suit in their personal opinions.
While the first amendment in the Constitution grants everyone the right to free speech, it is the people who are abusing their fame to persuade the outcome of the election that are the problem.
Some examples are celebrities, like Anne Hathaway and Taylor Swift, who have come out publicly supporting Kamala Harris, while Mike Wallace and Dennis Quaid have endorsed Donald Trump.
Their voices directly carry onto the voting polls. Superfans absorb these views and transfer it onto their own ballot, as they don’t see anything wrong with their public figure’s judgment.
Followers who may not have a full grip on the current political standings of the candidates may start to form biases due to statements that their favorite public figures are making.
This eliminates the crucial part in decision-making that most people need, which is assessing the current situation at hand through their own eyes. It’s important for people to form their own opinions so that they don’t spread invalid information to others.
Whether or not someone’s a fan of one of these public figures doesn’t matter, as the correlation between them and the candidate is placed subtly and subconsciously in the voters’ heads. As people go to vote, they don’t tend to remember the press coverage that they’ve read, but rather the people standing behind the candidates’ actions.
These celebrities, along with many public figures, are essentially planting the seeds that young voters need to plant themselves in order to set up a successful life as an American adult.
In order to maintain a steady knowledge of current events, and to make properly educated choices, it’s very important that voters keep up with current events through unbiased web sources and public figures. Websites like Votesmart offer free and accurate information on each political candidate and keep the public up to date on current events.
It’s important to remember in this day and age that even though everyone is free to say what they want to persuade the public, proper education is essential in order to formulate one’s own opinion about what one believes is best for themselves.
