Social Media Involved in Debt Ceiling Debate?

Social Media platforms (notably, Twitter) have clearly evolved to become the most efficient form of mass-communication. It’s now becoming that it’s also the most effective. Reports surfaced over the weekend that Twitter played an integral role in the debt ceiling debate in Washington.

The debt ceiling debate has been going on for weeks as President Obama has been negotiating with Congress to agree on an amount that the ceiling will be raised to. President Obama, on his Twitter account (@BarackObama) asked citizens to tweet their congressmen to ask them to try to come to some sort of agreement with the President. Anyone who followed this was asked to include the hashtag #compromise.

The outcome of this was a bitter exchange of tweets and retweets by congressmen and others, challenging the debate, and almost continuing the debate online.

It has also been reported that the exchange of tweets actually helped the agreement (announced by Congress) late on Sunday. The House and Senate will vote today.

Social Media is clearly extremely powerful. Years ago, people could never have imagined having a communications channel that would connect them to the most powerful people in the world. It continues to evolve.