There is no doubt that Facebook has a learning curve. Particularly, people of older generations just don’t seem to get it. In terms of using Facebook for social or political activism, I think many people go about using Facebook in the wrong ways, or at the very least, overestimate the power of joining groups.
But nevertheless, Facebook has tremendous potential, if for no reason other than its 100 million users.
So in thinking about how to help the Obama campaign through College Democrats, Facebook could definitely be a tool with tremendous potential, but only if it is used correctly. I studied Facebook in terms of “social capital” last year for my Media Technology and Cultural change class and what I came up with was that Facebook has the potential to be powerful because it could connect different otherwise separated social groups through what some scholars call the “strength of weak ties.” This social web can be represented graphically:
So that’s enough theory (sorry I love this stuff). In relation to College Democrats, during our on-campus canvassing operation of swing state voters, we encounter mostly mildly enthusiastic Obama supporters (who are hopefully registered and mostly have gotten their absentee ballots). Where we could really make an impact would be by getting them to get their friends involved in the campaign, or, at the very least, voting. Enter Facebook. We encourage everyone who’s door we knock on to make a “register to vote” Facebook group complete with “register to vote” links and get their friends to join.
By doing this, Facebook is used in a more personable way (these aren’t huge groups), and we are in effect linking networks.
We’re using the strength of “weak ties.”
