Hey, did you know it’s Student Association election season?

Well, if you’re on Facebook (and come on, who isn’t?) we’re willing to bet our windowless office that your answer would be a resounding, if not slightly annoyed or downright enraged, ‘Of course I know, I’ve been getting Facebook-spammed with those stupid elections groups for weeks!’

To be completely honest, our initial response to this new phenomenon of cyber campaigning was an eye roll accompanied with a modicum of gagging. But then we really began thinking about the impact this Facebook campaigning blitz could potentially have on this year’s election, and the future of SA elections in general, and our gag reflex calmed down a bit.

There is no solid statistic for how much time students spend a day on social networking sites, but it’s probably a good deal longer than they spend thinking about SA elections (and that’s taking the overly optimistic view that they think about SA elections at all). But thanks to our obsessive compulsion to check Facebook multiple times a day, students who might not even know what the letters SA stand for now know who’s running for what positions and how they feel on a bunch of issues. And surprise surprise, the issues being talked about actually affect their lives!

Not to mention that Facebook campaigning has the potential to eliminate some of the less desirable elements of SA election season. A traditional SA campaign revolves around the systematic distribution of quarter-sheets ‘ pieces of paper that display the candidate’s name, a brief description of their intent and the conventional ‘VOTE-FOR’ label. As illustrated by the massive amounts of party advertisements, general interest meeting invites and political quarter-sheets littering the floors of Lecture Hall, people may not like the fact that they’ve just had a piece of future trash shoved into their hands. Now it’s all cyber trash! It clutters your e-mail, but it’s environmentally friendly. (Al Gore would approve.)

Plus, the transfer to an electronic medium allows campaigners more room to display their goals, with no restriction from an advertising budget (as Facebook is free), and the ability to reach individuals in a less invasive manner.

Now, we’d love for BU to take the inventive credit for this method, but real-world politicians, like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have MySpace accounts and are making more use of their Web sites than Lincoln and Douglas made of wooden podiums.

Now, for the warning: like any other new venue, social network campaigning is impersonal and has the potential for insincere excess. For instance, according to the mini-feeds on the Facebook profiles of both presidential candidates ‘ David Bass and Dave Belsky ‘ the two have both suddenly joined the Facebook groups of numerous BU student groups in the past several days. But this seems rather similar to a candidate making speeches from the caboose of a train: historically, a candidate would roll into town for a day or two then move along, basically saying, ‘Here’s what I want to do, and I acknowledge your existence, but now I have to go elsewhere.’

What it comes down to is that the goal of any political candidate is to get people involved in order to get votes, and the use of Facebook is a reflection of our current relationship with technology. In addition to becoming a vehicle for pornography, new media for communication eventually becomes accessed by those with political intent. While it may be easy to question the validity of using this electronic venue, ignoring its potential and holding fast to the traditional venues is not only a form of snobbery, it’s plain foolish.

After all, any venue, no matter how old, was once new ‘ and the person utilizing the newest venue usually walks away with the election.