New Media, Politics and Language...

I was watching CNN earlier, and I heard that this election had the highest voter turnout in approximately 100 years. Why? Apparently because, just like 100 years ago, we're seeing the same person-to-person contact, as one political analyst suggested. Thanks to mobile and online technologies--particularly texts, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter--younger generations are now socially networking and engaging in political discourse. Online technology is helping to reach out to younger voters and is playing a huge role in forging the political landscape. Websites like Myspace and Facebook, and even blogs, have become vehicles for promoting contact among voters, ultimately allowing them to engage in discussion over the issues. 

This makes me wonder, would we still have such a high voter turnout this election if we didn't have the same online technology we have today? How would this election be different if we didn't have the world wide web at our disposal?