Why It’s a Good Idea to Click Campaign Ads from Candidates You Dislike

As the November election nears, we are all receiving campaign ads from politicians. Here is a surprising suggestion: don’t click the ads of the politicans you endorse. Instead, click the ads from candidates you dislike. There are five reasons why.

1. Clicking ads may cost the campaign money. For example, if you use Facebook and if the campaign chooses cost-per-click, your clicking one piece of ad will cost the campaign approximately $1. Suppose one click costs 10 seconds, then you are spending the campaign ads at a rate of $360 per hour. At this rate, you’d feel better if you’re burning the money of the politicians you don’t like.
2. It may help you learn about another side of politics from their view. If you click the campaign ads of the politicians you don’t like, you will land on their website and see their narrativies. Whether you like it or not, you might learn a thing or two, that are not necessarily shown through your usual news feeds.
3. It breaks down money politics by just a little bit. Political campaigning on social media relies on one big behavioral assumption — that people click on campaigns they are attracted to. The more you click ads of a certain campaign, the more you get tagged by algorithm to be a big fan (and a big potential donor) to the campaign, and you get advertised to even more. This system is inherently divisive, in that it attracts people with extreme beliefs to participate much more than moderates. However, if you and enough other people don’t follow this assumption, then the system won’t work this way.
4. It provides you a voice at no cost. You might not necessarily want to donate to political campaigns that already have millions of dollars. But, by clicking the campaigns you don’t like and burn their ad budget by a little bit, you create the same effect as donating to the campaign you like. In this way, social media political campaigns actually gives you a unique opportunity to voice your political position — by using the system against its assumptions.
5. It provides an emotional buffer on your social media experience. Nowaways, viewing social media feeds can be an emotional adventure. Who knows what you’ll see today? When you see a piece of news that make you feel angry and want to act, isn’t it great that you can act right now, by clicking on the campaign ads that appear when you scroll down just a little bit? If you click on certain campaign ads often enough, your news feed will be full of their kind. If you are like me, clicking them will be just-in-time therapy.

So, why not click the campaign ads from the politicans you dislike? If we are willing to surprise the algorithms, every one of us actually have a tool at our hand to influence how political campaigns work on social media.

(I’m always open to counter-arguments. If you disagree, please let me know by messaging me or leaving a comment below.)