Column: Technology inhibits voter turnout
Nov. 18, 2008
Last week, a glitch prevented the Missouri Students Association presidential election from running as planned. A faulty link didn't allow students to vote. The election was rescheduled for this week, Monday through Wednesday.
But technology affects more than just campus politics. Our dependence on technology is hurting voter turnout across America, experts say.
Last year, I talked with MU political science professor David Webber about MU elections. I was writing an article for The Maneater about voter turnout for the 2007 MSA presidential election and the Homecoming royalty election.
Webber said online voting often leads to low voter turnout. Voting is a social activity that promotes personal relationships and face-to-face communication, he said in The Maneater story.
Technology, however, is more individualistic and discourages discussion and interaction.
"Campaigns and elections are all about social contact," Webber said in the article. "In the end, technology is the opposite of what we need. E-mail voting for the American Political Science Association's Executive Council has been consistently 30 percent of the membership - and these are political scientists. People just don't vote as much as we think they do."
Ultimately, some scholars link the decline in social capital, generally defined as connections within and between social networks, to diminishing active social engagement. Social engagement includes public meeting attendance, committee participation and more, in addition to voting.
Bowling Alone, a paper and book by political scientist Robert Putnam, for example, explores the correlation between decreasing involvement in social community organizations and increasing political apathy.
The book provides thought-provoking random facts: "TV watching has such a powerful impact on civic engagement that one hour less daily viewing is the civic-vitamin equivalent of five or six more years of education."
Putnam writes about the causes behind America's declining social capital, the networks created by Scout troops and service organizations, garden clubs and neighborhood associations that contribute to political awareness, economic prosperity and personal well-being. In fact, the book derives its name from a noteworthy statistic about bowling: Although more Americans are bowling today than ever before, bowling in organized leagues has plunged.
In many cases, technology is now replacing the social and civic groups of previous years and generations. In his essay, Putnam cites the "technological transformation of leisure" as one key cause for the attrition of U.S. social capital. Technology, especially TV, "privatizes" our leisure time and therefore takes away opportunities for social engagement, he tells.
"Television has made our communities (or, rather, what we experience as our communities) wider and shallower," Putnam writes.
Technology is, of course, not entirely bad. During the presidential election this year, candidates campaigned using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other Web sites. The Democratic Party especially invigorated voters and reported much-increased levels of political engagement and involvement.
But, ultimately, a comparable portion of eligible voters cast ballots in 2008 and in 2004. Though both elections showed a marked increase in voter turnout from previous decades.
This year, "between 60.7 percent and 61.7 percent of the 208.3 million eligible voters cast ballots this year, compared with 60.6 percent of those eligible in 2004," political scientist Curtis Gans reported in a Politico.com article.
And, on campus, technology is certainly hurting student government elections.
The gaffe with the electronic election ballot might discourage student voters who decide not to bother with clicking the link a second time.
But, furthermore, does our dependence on technology and our obsession with the Internet prevent us from getting completely engaged, aware and involved? Do we sacrifice community discussion to upload pictures or to shop online?
Prove the experts wrong.
Use Facebook and candidates' Web sites to research the platforms of each MSA slate. And vote this week in their presidential election.
More Nov. 18, 2008 Forum Stories
- Fessehaye/Abell will listen to student organizations — Ryan Pulkrabek, Greeks Going Green President
- Questions about freeze must be answered — On Monday, UM system President Gary Forsee sent an e-mail to all UM faculty announcing a hiring freeze on all ...
- Students must push hard for condoms — Just last week, we called for administrators to speed up the timeline for condoms in residence halls and urged student ...
- Celebrating a historic presidency that's still in the future — Last night, while sifting through the sludge heap of late night TV infomercials, I came across an ad for a ...
- Obnoxious freshman surplus due to rising enrollment — It seems to upperclassmen that every year the freshman class at MU gets larger and somehow more naive to the ...
Most recent Forum Stories
- Smoking ban is not a student mandate — You know what's funny? The Missouri Students Association voted down a measure last week to implement a campus-wide smoking ban. ...
- Sustain Mizzou credits MSA, student supporters — Thank you to all who have supported Sustain Mizzou
- At-home health care missed in college — Just thinking of the word "college" conjures many associative words in the minds of high school juniors and seniors chomping ...
- Media impacts shopping, politics, IQ — Logo lockdown: media's influence seen everywhere
- Tasty Starbucks drinks outweigh goose bumps, broken ice scrapers — I hate winter. I hate the way it makes me feel so lazy that I don't want to do anything ...