As the iPhone, social media AND politics nerd I am, I’ve spent the weekend playing with the Swedish political parties iPhone apps. The Red-Greens have a shared app, so does the Alliance. In addition, the Social Democrats, the Center Party and the Christian Democrats also have their own separate apps.
The Red-Green’s app is purely focused on politics — you can compare the Red-Greens to the Alliance or ask a question about the Red-Green’s politics. Relevant information of course, but why use an app for this? Apps should be used for funnier things if you ask me.
The Alliance lets us play with magnetic poetry to say good things about their politics. Fun for about… 30 seconds.
The Social Democrats app is a guide to where my nearest voting station is. It may be useful if you are a very absent-minded person, but quite boring.
The Christian Democrats app is called “What does Göran say” and lets you play with party leader Göran Hägglund and a few quotes. Some of them are really by him, some aren’t. My guess is that he probably never said “WTF is going on dude”, but “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” are probably his words. I like this app — totally meaningless but fun.
The Center Party has given us an app that is all about their leader Maud Olofsson. You can take a test that tells you “how much Maud” you are, or you can hear Olofsson speak about her “roots, values and dreams for Sweden”. I think it’s necessary to be a hardcore fan of the Center Party and Olofsson to think this is fun.
The winner is definitely the Christian Democrats’ iPhone app. It uses a good dose of humor and focus on entertainment as well as politics. Success! It remains to be seen if the Christian Democrats succeed equally in the elections this Sunday.
