Election Day hits Facebook

Political campaigns have used social networking Web sites such as www.facebook.com to their advantage, and anyone who logs onto Facebook today will likely see a page that has been usurped by the election.

Politically passionate people have passed presidential pins to each other as free “gifts” on the social networking Web site for several weeks. Friends have urged each other to vote via wall posts. Facebook itself has promoted the election by displaying the 2008 election event on its home page.

Today, my friends’ statuses are mainly dedicated to voting — either in general or for the candidates they support. Facebook has established an option to donate your status to the election at http://causes.com/election.

As much as I want people to vote, I’m not donating my status (instead I am doing some shameless self-promotion by telling everybody to check www.statenews.com for updated election coverage).

But in case you didn’t know who your friends were voting for (or I guess “friends” considering it’s Facebook), check their status updates. I know I am — how else will I know who to laugh at tomorrow?