President Barack Obama talked student loans, space program funding and beer in an unconventional interview on the Internet last week.
Users of social news website reddit.com were invited to “ask him anything,” giving ordinary people — including some UF students — a chance to pick the president’s brain. With this, Obama and his team broke into yet another social media outlet, joining profiles on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. He leads Republican candidate Mitt Romney in social media use, according to adage.com.
UF materials science and engineering junior Patrick Terry, 20, submitted a series of questions during the Obama AMA. But none made the cut — the president only answered 10 questions.
Terry, who moderates a Gainesville subreddit, sees the AMA as a campaign move. But he said it could further legitimize Reddit as a source of information, depending on whether or not “it becomes a regular election stop.”
It may be. On Monday, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson announced he will hold his second AMA on Reddit Sept. 11.
In his AMA, Obama addressed student loans and post-graduate job prospects in response to a question from Hilary Lee, an unemployed 26-year-old Northwestern University Law School graduate.
“I understand how tough it is out there for recent grads,” Obama wrote. “But the key for your future, and all our futures, is an economy that is growing and creating solid middle-class jobs — and that’s why the choice in this election is so important.”
It was nothing groundbreaking, Lee said, but still exciting.
“He did have to think about it for a couple minutes, and it is in his mind more than it was before he started,” she said.
Obama’s online presence was credited by many in 2008 for connecting with young voters and pushing them to the polls. This year, candidates’ digital engagement is under even more scrutiny.
As of press time, the president has about 19 million followers on Twitter while Romney has about 1 million. Obama has about 28.2 million likes on Facebook as opposed to Romney’s 6.2 million. The president has 1.2 million Instagram followers, but Romney has about 32,000.
Politics aside, 20-year-old graphic design junior and Reddit user Jason McDade saw Obama’s Internet interaction as a nice gesture.
“It’s a neat little way to reach out,” McDade said. “I definitely think that as a whole, it was a positive thing.”
