Post by warrior1972 on Jan 17, 2014 10:52:11 GMT -8
Washington (CNN) -- When Rand Paul, a likely Republican presidential candidate, signed up for the photo-sharing app Shapchat on Wednesday, it set off a predictable round of mockery about the Kentucky senator.
Haha! chanted the Greek chorus of Internet snark. Look at this 51-year-old man signing up for the buzzy social media platform in a lame effort to win over The Youngs!
"Rand Paul Officially Ruins Snapchat Forever," was Huffington Post's take on the matter.
Even the senator himself admitted that edgy social media platforms can be drained of their cool factor once older users try to elbow in on the fun.
"Young people are flocking to it, until the grownups show up and people go somewhere else," Paul said in an interview with CNN.
Taken together, the blizzard of Rand ridicule contained at least one inarguable kernel of truth: Signing up for neat social apps won't solve the Republican Party's complicated relationship with younger voters. The GOP's collective aversion to same-sex marriage, which is favored by a large majority of Americans under 30, is one bigger obstacle that comes to mind.
But politicians -- at least the smart ones -- aren't just flocking to new platforms because they're trying to be hip, though that's certainly part of the calculation. They're joining them because that's increasingly where the voters are.
"It's pretty simple," said Wesley Donehue, a Republican consultant who specializes in digital strategy and spends as much time in Silicon Valley as he does in the trenches of national politics. "Rand Paul is talking to younger voters on a platform where they are spending all their time."
www.cnn.com/2014/01/17/politics/rand-paul-snapchat-younger-voters/index.html