Technology has been affecting our lives more than ever. Constructing houses, business establishments and many other infrastructures can be done in a speed of light with the help of modern facilities and equipment. What used to be an incurable disease can now be treated with recent discoveries in health and medicine. Even in education, students can earn a degree without actually going to school everyday, listening to sometimes boring classroom lectures and dealing with less friendly classmates. If you will just look at it, you will definitely agree that a day will not pass without a close encounter with technology.

Indeed, technology is continuously increasing its significance to every human’s life. It is becoming popular that its real value has been recognized even in the political arena. Let’s take the campaign period as an example. While mass production of banners, printed ads and other campaign materials involve the use of technology, a lot of politicians nowadays took extra steps and became more modernized by using social media to get the people’s attention, trust and eventually their votes. Many politicians are now expert in creating short messages with 140 characters only. Some even hire people to post tweets for them. Still, others have individual Facebook fan pages, either created by themselves or their staff. While social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are ideal both for candidates and elected officials to let people know of their objectives for running and their plans for the community, they are also great ways for ordinary citizens to let their voices be heard. Twitter users will simply need to hit the reply button or mention the concerned politician in their tweets if they want to convey something, be it admiration, suggestion, complain or criticism. On the other hand, those who are fans, or detractors for that matter, of a particular politician will only need to make a wall post to the fan page in order to make their concerns known. Whether or not the politician is the one managing his account, the chances of having your message reach him is greater.

This scenario only proves that, social networking is not just a bunch of sites people use for spamming, to scam those who are less informed or to stalk others. Social networking is one powerful tool that when used properly can generate useful results like finding a missing kid or raising funds to aid earthquake victims.

Social networking isn’t the only one that has been tapped by politicians. Infomercials have their own stories to tell too. Do you remember a presidential candidate who purchased programming time to air his political views and his opinions on other national issues? Surely the memory is still fresh for the use of infomercials is one of the factors for gaining popularity thereby winning the highest post in the United States. Though purchasing programming time can be pricey, it guarantees desirable results. Not all people are overly enthusiastic about machines while some cannot afford computers and internet hence there are still who turn to television or radio whether for entertainment or to get the hottest news. With this, politicians who use infomercials are more likely to enter the homes and eventually gain the attention and trust of many viewers or listeners.

This should be enough to make everyone believe that technology indeed affects politics. However, if you are still among the unconvinced few, try to visit the US President’s twitter account for assessment.