Grambling campaign week has finally met up with the social networking, which is becoming a medium for all information. Candidates for the upcoming fall and spring semester are now allowed to use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. as a means to campaign.
In the past, these types of posts warranted a disqualification from campaigning but it seems this year that rules have loosened and finally come to pass with the rise of the technology age.
Using posts on Twitter and Instagram as a means to campaign is a good idea for candidates because social media has a profound way of getting information out there clearly and efficiently. We will soon find if this method of campaigning is also effective.
The loosening of rules leaves our ‘timelines’ subsequent to overkill campaigning, but hey, all in the name of support for our fellow peers. Though students are now allowed to post over social networking sites, rules still apply that are seemingly the same prior to sites being a medium for campaigning, no posts are allowed after 10 p.m.
This change is bringing a new campaigning age here at Grambling State University and makes it very interesting to see what also will come to pass in coming years for the campus in regards to elections.
Grambling’s campus has always been big on election week, possibly for the free goodies, an understandable reason, so going digital this year has made this election year one for the books hands down.
Perhaps this is a trial run for going digital at Grambling and at the end of elections they will evaluate rather this method of campaigning will always be used. I’m sure past candidates are looking back now just thinking ‘What if?’ But, as they say, If, If was a fifth -we would all be drunk, or something of that nature. Bottom line, past candidates just get over it, you were before your time.
Kudos to these candidates who were able to utilize social media sites in their campaigning. You were a part of something great on campus, even if perhaps you come out defeated in the end.
Alexia Calton is a senior mass communication major from DeSoto, Texas.