An Update: We Have the Power (?)

Last week I saw this article about one aspect of Twitter reaction to the election. Specifically people saying things like "Obama won! We get to keep our foodstamps!" I've been think about it and trying to find a way to talk it ever since then.

But then I realized! This is one small way that I already resolved the dilemma that I raised in my last post: The possibility of using the internet to inform ourselves despite the biased media. 

When I read the article, I realized that this was coming from a biased source (everyone is biased in one way or another, ammirite?) and was worried about taking what I saw at face value. So, I read the comments. I got a lot of agreement with what was being said, some disagreement and points raised that disputed what I had seen in the article (for example: were these people being sarcastic?); basically what you'd expect. But that wasn't good enough for me. So I did my own search on Twitter: I searched for #foodstamps. I saw for myself what people were saying about foodstamps. I saw the "raw data" as it were, and was able to draw my own conclusions.

The point it that the "raw" information was out there for me to examine, I just had to find a way to find it. In this case it wasn't all that hard, but I'm feeling encouraged that it's possible to draw our own conclusions.