By CIARA CEBALLOS-GUTIERREZ
Tiger Media Network
With midterm elections taking place today, political campaign ads have been on the rise. Between phone calls, text messages, television and radio ads, and social media feeds, campaign ads have become hard to avoid. As such, many students have expressed their fatigue with the overwhelming amount of campaign ads.
“Every time I open YouTube I see a political ad, and I am constantly getting spam texts and calls,”said FHSU freshman Maylin Sanders. “At this point you can even avoid them because they are just everywhere”
Although students encounter political advertisements across multiple platforms, their responses to those messages may vary.
“Usually, if it’s on TikTok, I’m just scrolling past it, or if it’s on a streaming service, I will usually just pick up my phone and not really pay attention,” said sophomore Jocelyn Peltzer. “They don’t make me more familiar with the candidate, but maybe more familiar with their name, just not the side that they’re on.”
While some students may ignore the ads, others may be more inclined to do research about each candidate.
“I think political ads have encouraged me to learn more about them because they try to clickbait with the messages and they send out the bad things about one candidate,” said freshman Laina Frost. “So, sometimes I will dive deep into that to see if that has any truth behind it.”
While students have different approaches to political ads, repeated exposure has become a source of frustration for some.
“[Students] see it so much that they don’t want anything to do with it anymore,” Frost said. “They’re tired of seeing it, so why would they go out and seek it themselves when they see it all the time around them anyway?”
While political ads are meant to be informative, students have expressed that they have become excessive and are not having the intended effect.
“I wish that campaign ads actually told you what each candidate stands for and what they are promising with their campaign,” Sanders said. “Instead, they just bash their opponent, and you don’t actually learn anything useful that can help you choose who to vote for.”
Voting is today from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm