Post-Election Brings Out the Crazies on Twitter

Sandhya Kambhampati
sjkambhampati@gmail.com
@sandhya__k



After months and months of campaigning, debates,  and the obsession with what the candidates are doing at every literal second, minute, and hour of every day,  it seems to me that some tweeters lost their steam and their caring.

On election night after my coverage at WOUB, I headed onto Twitter to see the reactions to re-elected President Obama and the reactions of Governor Romney. It's interesting that Gov. Romney used his website to live stream President Obama's victory speech (see twitpic by @chrisgeidner)

Twitpic by @chrisgeidner

I've decided to take a closer look at Twitter, not from a journalist perspective or by analyzing news outlet tweets, but by your average American on Twitter  just days after election.

After the election ended, I noticed a trend, most of what was tweeted was hate tweets.
There was also maps or interactive maps which broke  down the electoral votes and key issues for each state. Here is one site that I personally have been keeping up with the days after the election, along with many other tweeters.
 Patchwork Nation Map
The map provides users with information on each community in every state. It's interesting to note the way that each community is characterized and how these states voted and compare them to the way that people in these perspective states tweeted.
Now when I say hate tweets,  I'm not talking about those tweets which just say "I don't like this policy" but ones that  literally used hate in their tweets against each of the candidates and to show their true feelings.
 It seemed that everyone on Twitter decided to show their true opinions and throw their "social media" image out the window because everything was okay to say.There was even hate twitter handle to show how ignorant some Americans are.
See: @TerribleAmerica
Here's a couple of these tweets:

These type of tweets just make me think about the thoughts that run through people's minds that would even provoke them to put this type of information out on the Internet.

It's good to note that there was also hate tweets sent against Gov. Romney, but there seemed to be some type of fascination with this display of thoughts.  What are my thoughts? 

Well, it seems that people were just so sick of the election ads and coverage and just needed to do something about it.

In my mind, all these hate tweets are really doing nothing for the overall image of the US.

It seems like this girl should be crying about the tweeters and not the crazy coverage.

What are you thoughts about post-election hate tweets?  Tweet @sandhya__k