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Did Facebook Give Democrats the Upper Hand?
The Atlantic ^

Posted on 11/08/2012 11:36:32 AM PST by missycocopuffs

You didn't know it at the time, but when you logged into Facebook on Election Day, you became a subject in a mass social experiment. You went about your day, clicked around Facebook, and you may have voted. Now your behavior is data that social scientists will scrutinize in the months ahead, asking one of the core questions of democracy: What makes people vote? If patterns from earlier research hold true, the experiment's designer James Fowler says that it is "absolutely plausible that Facebook drove a lot of the increase" in young-voter participation (thought to be up one percentage point from 2008 as a share of the electorate). It is, he continued, "even possible that Facebook is completely responsible."

Assuming you are over the age of 18 and were using a computer in the United States, you probably saw at the top of your Facebook page advising you that, surprise, it was Election Day. There was a link where you could find your polling place, a button that said either "I'm voting" or I'm a voter," and pictures of the faces of friends who had already declared they had voted, which also appeared in your News Feed. If you saw something like that, you were in good company: 96 percent of 18-and-older U.S. Facebook users got that treatment, assigned randomly, of course. Though it's not yet known how many people that is, in a similar experiment performed in 2010, the number was *60 million*. Presumably it was even more on Tuesday, as Facebook has grown substantially in the past two years.

But here's the catch: four percent of people didn't get the intervention.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: election; facebook; socialmedia
Hope this isn't a duplicate, but 'search' function not working on FR today.
1 posted on 11/08/2012 11:36:39 AM PST by missycocopuffs
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To: missycocopuffs

Everyday there are people who hate successful companies that they have to bash and bash them. America is no longer a place where you can work hard, become a successful company and have people love you. Nope people hate Facebook because it is successful and popular and most people hate that and are so jealous. Sad lives these idiots live.


2 posted on 11/08/2012 11:39:06 AM PST by napscoordinator (GOP Candidate 2020 - "Bloomberg 2020 - We vote for whatever crap the GOP puts in front of us.")
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To: napscoordinator
people hate Facebook because it is successful

I hate Facebook because it sneakily aggregates people's personal information and it appeals to the worst component of our mass-media driven culture.

I hate Playboy because they have systematically debased and degraded the American woman, and made pornography a household commodity.

I hate McDonald's because they market the lowest quality, most unhealthy fast food imaginable to mainly children, minorities and the stupid.

Success is commendable if achieved with honor. Tony Soprano, I can do without.

3 posted on 11/08/2012 11:57:03 AM PST by RetroSexual (May the REAL loser in 2012 be our corrupted media.)
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To: RetroSexual

They’re low, debase, and unwholesome.. Yet they embody capitalism.
Isn’t that what we fight for?


4 posted on 11/08/2012 12:14:15 PM PST by absolootezer0 (2x divorced tattooed pierced harley hatin meghan mccain luvin' REAL beer drinkin' smoker ..what?)
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To: RetroSexual

Success is commendable if achieved with honor. Tony Soprano, I can do without.

lol. That is pretty good.


5 posted on 11/08/2012 12:19:13 PM PST by napscoordinator (GOP Candidate 2020 - "Bloomberg 2020 - We vote for whatever crap the GOP puts in front of us.")
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To: napscoordinator

Did we read the same article? It sure didn’t bash FB and neither did I. In fact, I use FB every single day and I have posted on this site and elsewhere that we (conservatives/republicans/tea partiers) ignore social media at our peril.


6 posted on 11/08/2012 1:16:50 PM PST by missycocopuffs
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To: missycocopuffs

I was being general...there are some very anti-Facebook Company folks on here.


7 posted on 11/08/2012 1:18:35 PM PST by napscoordinator (GOP Candidate 2020 - "Bloomberg 2020 - We vote for whatever crap the GOP puts in front of us.")
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To: missycocopuffs
ignore social media at our peril.

Thats why I think the death of Andrew Breitbart was a major blow.

He seemed to be the only conservative that really knew how to exploit the "New Media".

8 posted on 11/08/2012 1:23:11 PM PST by eddie willers
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To: eddie willers

Yes!!


9 posted on 11/08/2012 1:44:37 PM PST by missycocopuffs
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To: napscoordinator

You obviously don’t know a thing about Facebook.


10 posted on 11/08/2012 2:08:18 PM PST by newzjunkey (Obama thanks Pontius Pilate Freepers for giving him four more years!)
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To: RetroSexual

I like Facebook, McDonald’s and Playboy. But I hate Twitter.


11 posted on 11/08/2012 2:11:06 PM PST by JediJones (Newt Gingrich warned us that the "King of Bain" was unelectable. Did you listen?)
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To: RetroSexual
I hate Facebook because it sneakily aggregates people's personal information

So sneaky that everyone knows they do it. Masters of deception, they are.

12 posted on 11/08/2012 2:31:26 PM PST by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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