The process of voting has not drastically changed throughout the course of our country’s history. We elect a new president every four years, the majority of people vote in person and we have to wait for the results to be tabulated. You can ask your grandparents how they voted, and the process would be fairly similar to today. Even though the process has remained relatively consistent, voter engagement and the way voters consume information has changed as our grandparents did not have the resources we do now. They listened to the presidential debates on the radio, and even our parents got candidate information primarily from newspapers or television. Today, however, the younger generations predominantly get their information from the internet. Specifically, voters born after 2000 experienced their first elections with the heavy influence of social media.
Social media, although a fairly new source of information, has greatly impacted our generation. Unlike previous generations, we have grown up with the internet. As of 2022, there were 4.7 billion social media users worldwide, and many of those users heavily rely on these platforms, especially when it comes to news and politics. According to an article written by Owen Foster and Pete Markiewics, over 40% of Americans aged 18 to 29 say that social media is their primary source of news. Additionally, the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning (Circle) reported that 47% of 18-24 year olds heard about the 2018 midterm election results from one of the main social media apps. We have an endless stream of information at our fingertips, and this can be beneficial as well as dangerous.
Social media can be an important tool for young people approaching their first elections. These online communities allow like-minded individuals to gather virtually in a way that is not possible in the tangible world, showcasing a wide variety of viewpoints. On any of these apps, you can find users who are Republican, Democratic, liberal, conservative and everything in between. These people are comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions online, and the casual way they express concepts can make political issues seem less daunting to less experienced voters. For example, the online world makes it easy to find interpretations of the news and gain insight on the economy. Social media is full of people openly discussing politics and sharing their ideas with each other, and access to these communities helps to fight the societal barriers relating to politics. When someone is online, they may find that discussing these controversial subjects is no longer so taboo.
However, this method of acquiring information has its downfalls, especially during presidential races. Social media is different from other news sources. For previous generations, the news was fine-tuned to discredit false information. A news broadcaster may have presented a story in a certain way, but their reporting always relied on a foundation of truth. Now, though, there is no one in place to authenticate the content we are ingesting. This makes it much harder to pick out bits of false data because the apps we use every day are built to adapt to the interests of their users. This results in fragments of the truth because the information is catered toward one viewpoint over another.
Over our country’s history, young people have been the ones to speak up about their opinions, protest and generate change. Today, they still have their thoughts on how they think the country is being run. This is shown by a study from the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. Their research showed that only 9% of young Americans said the country was headed in the right direction, and, when asked what their main concern was, many students’ mentioned the economy, immigration and environmental issues.
Additionally, there has been an increase in voter turnout from the past 10 years. As seen in a chart released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of registered 18-24 year old voters has steadily increased since its low of 32.3% in 2000. Additionally, the voter turnout for 18-24 year olds showed a sharper increase from the 2016 to the 2020 election than any other age group. Although there is no official confirmation of a connection between these two variables, the increase in young adult voter turnout from the last 20 years could be related to the rise of social media. This would also explain why voter turnout has grown substantially since the 2000s, which was just around the time social media was popularized as well.
Although it has positively impacted voter turnout for younger generations in a myriad of ways, social media will continue to polarize its audiences with its growing popularity. It is vital that we don’t become subject to this. Every single student currently at South will be eligible to vote in the 2028 presidential elections, so we are responsible for taking the next four years to educate ourselves through reliable sources and expose ourselves to a variety of different viewpoints.
