Column: Young people tuning in to politics

Published 12:00 am Monday, February 25, 2008

By Clark Walton
For the Salisbury Post
When talking about young people and politics, some contend that young people aren’t interested, that we’re content to let the older, more experienced generations steer the ship in that regard.
But a closer look at today’s twenty-something generation shows a shift from traditional perceptions. This generation, my generation, has more access to information and media than any generation that has preceded it, and while at times trying to take in all of this information can be like “trying to take a drink of water from a fire hose,” it has also spurred on a newfound interest in politics and world events in our demographic.
For that reason, among many others, it is an exciting time to be a young voter in a presidential election year. Only decades ago, young people had to go to extraordinary means to be seen and heard on a national scale, and it was harder to get the information we needed to be informed voters.
But today, with social networking and media Web sites such as Facebook and YouTube, it takes only a few keystrokes to get information about candidates, or to give literally millions of people access to your personal opinions, regardless of your age. Those of us in my generation have been raised with camera phones and Blackberries always within reach, and we rely on Google to find the answers to almost any question we may have. (According to the Pew Research Center, 46 percent of 18-29-year-olds now use the Internet as a major source of political information, up from 21 percent in 2004).
Political campaigns at all levels, from the U.S. presidential race to more local elections, are taking note of our newfound voice, and candidates are constantly shaping their messages to appeal to us. If a candidate slips up, the video is sure to be posted to the Internet in a matter of hours (though whether that’s a good thing is certainly up for debate). The infamous “sweaty” Richard Nixon versus John F. Kennedy debate of 1960 showed that perception is everything in the eyes of the voting public, and, enabled by technology, young people have more control of public perception than ever before.
And young people’s political interests don’t stop at the computer screen. Politically themed comedy shows are wildly popular with the twenty-something crowd, such as “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” (whose failed attempt to get on the Democratic presidential ballot in South Carolina also gained national attention). These shows put things in perspective, and they keep politics interesting for us even when the candidates’ rhetoric gets tiresome.
Granted, I know I don’t speak for everyone. Saying “I’m young, my voice won’t be heard” is a convenient excuse, as my demographic hasn’t traditionally turned out to vote in high numbers. I am not implying that 100 percent of twenty-somethings are going to vote in the 2008 election. There will always be those that don’t want to get involved, and to each his or her own.
But the point is, on the whole today’s young people have been given the means to make a difference, and large numbers of twenty-somethings are making the most of the opportunity. We can’t in good faith claim youth as an excuse for turning a blind eye to the events shaping our lives, because the effects are all around us: we have friends and family deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve seen the price of gas rise by over $2 a gallon in our lifetimes, and we’ve listened to politicians debate climate change since we were in elementary school. The possibilities for the things that our generation may accomplish on these and other issues, with all of the advantages that we have, are exciting to think about.
For all of these reasons, we’ll be voting in November in record numbers. Until then, we’ll be sending each other the latest YouTube clips, updating our Facebook profiles, and, like everyone else, looking to see what the candidates will come up with next.- – –
Rowan County native Clark Walton is an attorney with the Charlotte office of the law firm Mayer Brown LLP.