You might log onto one of your social media profiles and notice that two friends are having a passionate debate on a recent political news story and think nothing of it. Even if there is no mention of politics or a favored political party on your profile, you might start seeing the advertisements trickling in, encouraging you to vote in the next election or to support a specific candidate. Try as you might to tune it out, politics can permeate your personal life and infect your social media news feeds. Vast numbers of George Washington University students have social media profiles that are buzzing with political activity, mainly because of their age group. Now, if you are studying for an online masters in political science, you may actually enjoy seeing various political topics appear on your social media pages. Otherwise, you can take the following steps to limit your exposure to topics that are of a highly political nature.
Restrict Your Social Media Profile
Have a problem with random people appearing on your pages and making statements that are inflammatory whenever politics get mentioned? Keep your page as private as possible and fill in your biography section with as little information as possible. Believe it or not, but social media profiles that are open to the public actually get looked at by people who have very loose associations with your friends and family. A social media user with an online master’s degree in political science might just happen across your page and engage in a conversation, meaning no harm.
Make Your Page a No Politics Zone
Those who have been on social media for a while might recount at least one conversation that took place online that led to some of their friends to make a friendly debate highly contentious. That conversation may have caused others to look at the participants differently, and it might have even led to the end of long friendships. If you don’t want to be a part of the drama then make it known to friends and family that political topics are not welcome on your social media profiles. In turn, you’ll need to avoid posting memes or linking to stories associated with politics if others are to take your request seriously.
Disassociate from Political Zealots
If there’s that one person that you’re friends with on social media who can’t seem to go more than five minutes without posting something to support his or her political beliefs, it can be helpful to have a conversation about your feelings. You don’t have to be tagged in political posts if you don’t want to and if this person is truly your friend, he or she will understand that you would rather not be involved. There’s also the option of changing your permissions so that you’re not linked to anything that you don’t agree with.
It can be tiring to see political topics appearing all the time online, and your social media profile should very much be a personal space that you have complete control over. If you don’t want to talk about politics, don’t. Your friends will hopefully be able to respect your beliefs.