Since Twitter has come out with the polls feature, teens have been using Twitter polls to gather input from their peers to make decisions. This begs the question: are Twitter polls an effective method of decision making?

Twitter polls hit the internet with a bang, and have revolutionized the process of decision making by involving the opinions of internet friends on important, and not-so-important, issues. Almost two years ago the ground breaking tweet announcing the ability to ask the opinions of followers and strangers via the twitternet was posted in October of 2015. In up to a week, you can have the opinion of all your followers, all the while keeping the voters anonymous, thus causing decision making to be easier and more enjoyable in the twittersphere.

Kettle Run students not only post Twitter polls but also vote in them. “It was posted by Catherine Schefer about extra school days. I like to think my opinion helped, but honestly the poll itself wasn’t fact based so it didn’t really do anything,” said junior Amanda Dooly. A popular poll was posted by editor-in-chief of The Chronicle, Catherine Schefer, regarding the extra banked school days.

Some students vote in polls just to vote, to click the tempting gray button and know what everyone else has voted for. “I voted in the one about what we should do with our extra days,” said sophomore Nicole Piercy. “It was just kind of there, it didn’t really matter.”

The feature that keeps the anonymity of the voters keeps out outside influence. “I think it helps that I can’t see who anyone else votes for before I vote, that way the answer is mine without influence,” said junior Danielle Cleveland.

Since the creators of Twitter released their gift of polls, decision making and opinion collecting has become easier. “I posted a Twitter poll about which color to dye my hair,” said senior Mackie Rader. “I asked whether I should dye it dark brown or platinum blonde. I posted it because I was on the fence about what color to do. Platinum blonde won and I took the advice from the poll because the people that voted are the ones that see me everyday.”

Twitter polls have been used for school related purposes too. “I post polls to see the students’ opinions because it provides insight for our articles,” said Nathan Pullen, an editor who runs Kettle Run’s newspaper Twitter. “Our flow of the month poll had the most votes, probably because it was fun, out of the options vote for the student then we have stuff to work with.”