Communications Major

To read some people on the Internet, you’d think the election would be decided by who had the most followers and Tweeted the most about his or her favored candidate. The truth of the matter is that, even if you are the world’s most prolific political Twit with gobs of followers… those people (other than the spam bots) self-selected to follow you, meaning you’re either preaching to the converted or the trolls.

In real life, most people don’t use Twitter — and, when they do, it’s not to get involved in politics. Some statistics on that, courtesy of the Pew Internet and American Life Project....

The most hateful tweeters in the United States tend to live in the eastern half of the country, according to a new map that pinpoints hate speech directed at gays and minority groups from Twitter across country.