Obama's Online Campaign

The internet has become such a large part of our everyday lives that it has even affected how politicians now campaign. The first politician to effectively exploit that reach of the internet was Obama during the 2008 presidential elections. With the use of the web, Obama was able to campaign without the need to send out supporters to do door knocking or making cold calls. With weekly website traffic spiking over 1.25 million views, his website allowed him to raise campaign funds through donations at a much faster rate then traditional fund raising methods. This gave a huge edge to his campaign compared to his competitors who weren't even reaching 1 million weekly views.

Not only was he leading on website traffic, he also had a huge dominance on the social networks during this time. In 2008, Obama had over 400 thousand MrSpace "friends" while the next candidate was around 75 thousand. His Facebook supporters was even more numerous at nearly 1.25 million supporters on Facebook during the 2008 election year, while the next candidate barely had a quarter of a million supporters. This social network took Obama who was this random senators who barely had any experience in politics, and catapulted him into the spotlight during the 2008 elections, resulting in his eventual victory in the presidential race.

The Online Generation

With the web becoming an ever larger part of everyday life, it becomes harder and harder to ignore the effects social networking plays in our social interactions. This reliance on social networking has unfortunately come with a dark side. In the vast expanse known as the internet one of the largest aspects is the anonymity of being behind a screen. It is through this veil of anonymity that the horrors of the internet veers its ugly head.

Frontline's documentary on the dangers of the internet "Growing Up Online" brings to light many of the dangers hiding around the corners of the internet. One of the greatest threats with anonymity comes in the form of bullying. In the vast expanse known as the internet, it is a very hard task to monitor and prevent the ganging up and bullying of an individual. This is especially true for kids who have a tendency to gang up and bully others even without the help of the internet. With the help of the internet, this task becomes just that much easier to rally a greater number of individuals to bombard a single individuals social networking account. This has unfortunately occurred on multiple occasions and in some cases resulted in severe depression that as led to some individuals into suicidal tendencies. The internet which is usually seen as a sort of safe haven where an individual could be who they want, a supposed break from reality has turned into purgatory for some.