Silent Voters
Silent voters see things on television or scroll down their phones. They don’t understand headlines because they are initialized. The whole world seems to belong to a box, with initials. They are not in a box like new cellphones @mkbhd, the YouTube tech falcon unveils. Sorry. Unveil is old school. The current term is ‘un-box.’
These silent voters don’t belong in a box but they vote. Despite our love hate relationship with the internet and social media in particular, it is here and affects how politicians are elected and how their performance in corridors of power is assessed. But, politicians’ exclusive use of social media might cost them some votes because there are thousands of potential voters that are not active online.
Silent voters do not care what is trending. They don’t know socially accepted words for certain lifestyles. They don’t want their photos online. They basically prefer to fly under the radar. They have opinions about the state of the union or Canada but prefer to voice them in fitness centers, book clubs, motorcycle clubs, staff room, family picnics, cattle-men’s clubs, dairy producers’ co-operatives, favorite bars, temples, churches and synagogues.
They want human contact, face-to-face, to discuss bread and butter issues with ‘the man we sent to Washington or Ottawa.’ It is seldom a woman, but we won’t go into that today. Non-Twitter voters want politicians to look them in the eye and promise that out of town banks will not lock up and go because of electronic banking, for example.
Voters that are not active online cause chaos during elections for voting outside the box created by the media and polls.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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