The "social media election" has turned into the "anti-social election day," with some users tuning out of social sites to avoid a barrage of "#nothinbutannoyingposts" from "misinformed political 'experts.'"
While companies like YouTube, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and HuffPost are begging individuals to share stories from the voting booth, users on social media sites aren't quite as keen to hear from each other.
Thanks to Twitter, you don't need a cable new network or syndicated column to get your opinions heard: Anyone can be a political pundit for a few seconds. Which is precisely why so many people are swearing off social media until after the November 6. The key complaints for those fleeing Twitter during the election circus: They don't care about politics or they don't care for your politics. They're also tired of being nagged to vote.
With over 10 million tweets sent in a 90-minute period during the presidential debate in Denver -- "the most tweeted-about event in U.S. politics" -- there's no doubt what's going to dominant Twitter today.
Yup staying off all social media today... I just can't handle all the ignorance. If you are voting because of race or hate, #KeepYoMouthShut
— erin lloyd (@elloyd5) November 6, 2012
I'm staying off social media today. I don't care who you're voting for or why so #HopOffMyFeed
— α§Η∫Σϒ ♕ (@ashleymua) November 6, 2012
Seriously staying off social media today. I don't care what your political opinions are #sorrynotsorry
— Taylor Rae (@soapybaby) November 6, 2012
Or in some cases, Twitterers are just fed up with all the entreaties to "remember to vote."
I'm going to stay off of social media today. Cause I don't really wanna hear about voting. #forgottoregister
— Bejg (@SorryForSpeakin) November 6, 2012
Going to try to stay off social media today b/c people telling me to vote is like people shoving their religion down your throat. Don't tell
— Jessica Leanne (@minngirl07) November 6, 2012
Of course you don't have to ditch Twitter entirely to avoid political tweets. Google Chrome extension Proxlet will "fight Twitter noise" by hiding any tweets that contain the term(s) of your choice -- "election day," "Romney," "Obama," and so forth -- as will Slipstream and Tweetmute, which lets you silence specific users. To build a blacklist if you use other browsers, try Tweetfilter or Declutter. To filter out tweets on-the-go, iPhone owners can try Tweetagora or Tweetbot to mute certain terms, and Android owners can use Tweetcaster's "Zip It" feature. Though Twitter.com doesn't let users block keywords or hashtags, Twitter's Tweetdeck has a global filter feature (accessible via the "Settings" tab) that hides specific users, terms or tags.