Social Networking and the Election

I currently read the interview "Party Crashing: How the Facebook generation does Politics." and it made me wonder about how social networking and the internet will play a role in the upcoming election. While the article concludes that weariness of partisan politics is causing young people to look more and more at individuals rather than parties, and this in turn means that peer to peer relationships between candidates and voters remains important, it is the role of social networking that I think can have a profound effect on this election.

Take a look at Barack Obama's facebook fan page, it has over 1 million fans. Granted this may be misleading as many of these fans may be under the voting age, it still shows how the internet can create enthusiasm and momentum for political movements. Ron Paul similarly gained strength early in the primary process through the internet. However this shows the inherent frailty in this method of politics- Voter Turnout. Young people are inherently the least likely to vote in major elections.

Will the advent of social networking create a change in this?

It is hard to tell. In any case, the promise of social networking to help organize and motivate a movement holds promise for grassroots campaigns around the country, and may be helpful in curing the nation's political apathy