Arguments on social media about the transportation plebiscite could turn off some voters

METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – There’s no doubt about it — many of us have strong opinions about the transportation plebiscite. And you’ve probably seen some evidence of that on Facebook and Twitter.

There are suggestions extreme opinions on social media could impact voter turnout.

We’ve heard before about the fact that you’re seeing a screen, rather than a person, while posting a strong opinion; that can take away some of your trepidation or sensitivity.

Richard Smith with the Centre for Digital Media says that could be a factor here. He says space limitations can play a role, as well.

Online conversations can move toward becoming dominated by the extreme voices, eventually causing the more reasonable ones to drop out of the discussion and maybe out of the issue altogether.

“Online discussions have the advantage that you can, for example, link to a report or bring forth data and so on. [It is a great advantage,” says Smith. “But when people get into really extreme opinions and yes/no, then not only [does] that not include much new information, but it kind of just sours the whole discussion so you have a tendency for people to drop out altogether.”

“They don’t hear anything useful, they aren’t sure what they believe, and then they may not even bother to vote — they just feel that it’s a contentious issue that doesn’t concern them. So you could have… what you really don’t want: people not participating at all,” he tells us.

Smith adds extreme positions don’t generally convince people of anything.

“You’re more talking to you and your friends and people who already believe that. The way to win people over is not to be extreme in your position and so you end up with basically the thing divided into two camps of what people already believe,” he explains.

But he says those discussions may not impact everyone.

“It’s easy to not see them if you aren’t part of that community. And so while it may look extreme and it may look like a lot of noise, it could be not that important for the great bulk of people and so it may or may not really have any impact at all. It could be sort of like a bunch of arguing in the corner and the rest of the people are taking their information in other ways and will vote for other reasons. And they just don’t even know about the extreme views because it’s pretty easy, even if you do see one, just to block it out thereafter.”

Ballots start being mailed out on Monday.

Tune in this Monday at 7 p.m. for a live special event: an hour-long discussion with both the “yes” and “no” sides of the tax debate, to help you decide how to vote. Click here for details, including how you can participate and ask questions.