Do you remember a time when young people weren’t fighting for a better world? Movements for womens rights, the 70’s free love and anti-war marches, students fighting for fair education have had real life impacts on policy and legislation and this kind of political engagement is being mirrored by young people today.
Political engagement for young people has taken on many forms over the years, and in recent times, marches and protests are reclaiming the limelight. The needs of young people have often been overlooked but with these alternative political movements, they are taking back their power and have had enough.
Throughout history the idea that young people are disengaged, uninterested and naive to politics has done considerable more damage than it has good in giving a clear picture of our younger generation in politics. With tying themselves up on the roadside and throwing beans at paintings at the hight of their representation, it is no wonder young people feel disheartened and distrusting of traditional politics and media.
In the wake of movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter (BLM), the push from young people to be heard, taken seriously and to create a world that represents and protects them, is paving the way for a new age of political engagement for our younger generation.
Demotivation and disengagement from politics is a very real issue for so many of us and on the surface it would seem that young people are especially detached. Even as far as to suggest that young people are in an ever present political crisis, with voting age representation at a significantly lower rate than older generations (Barrett, 2018). But if young people are leading movements, why aren’t they voting?
This issue could arise when young people, understandably, don’t see the importance and impact of their vote. Signing petitions and attending rallies, protests and sharing information are all important vectors for political change, sadly though it isn’t always enough and young people are often not being reminded of votings value.
“OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM ISN’T REALLY LINKED UP TO OUR NATIONAL POLICY SYSTEM. WHEN YOU SAY IT LIKE THAT, I THINK IT BECOMES A BIT MORE UNDERSTANDABLE AS TO WHY YOUNG PEOPLE PERHAPS DON’T SEE THE IMPORTANCE OF VOTING”- GQ Magazine (Pometsey, 2020).
In the age of information, the ability to do a quick google search is at our fingertips and with the younger generation able to access anything at any given moment, it is no wonder they are far more aware of global and systemic issues than ever before.
Social media has seemingly had a huge impact in the way young people are choosing to be political. Although It has been suggested that online politics, notably on social media, might be a type of performance politics.
“Performative activism is activism done to increase one’s social capital rather than because of one’s devotion to a cause.” (Boston Medical, 2021)
Online representation of the BLM movement has been accused of this type of performative politics; the pressure to post a black square to show support for the movement was one example of this, highlighting how young people felt a pressure to show their allegiance without any real life application or activism.
So what do young people really care about? Each year surveys are undertaken by the youth council to see what the priorities of the youth are and what they care about; health and well-being coming out on top as being at the forefront of their minds (Afflick, 2022) . With woman’s rights, the treatment of LGBTQ+ people and systemic racism all the main topics of activism. Under-represented and labelled as ‘snowflakes’ , young people feel like their vote doesn’t make a difference, as evidenced in YouGov’s survey shows views on voting (Nolsoe, 2019).
Young people are moving towards a more diverse, global and active political role and are increasingly more distrusting of traditional media. With the inbuilt bias and systemic racism in the our current political system; disengaging from mainstream politics as a political protest or participating in non-traditional means such as online activism shows a real interest in active citizenship whilst also highlighting the need for real change.
All this being said, the need for traditional politics is not going anywhere…
The chicken or the egg, what comes first. Does reforming the political system mean more young people will vote.. or do young people need to vote in order for real reform to happen?
It is not a stretch to say that lack of political education for young people, is the very thing keeping them feeling left out of the conversation. Those who vote more, get more. Right? Well without the tools, know-how and education to actively participate in politics, is this really an equal playing field?
What can we do?
Providing young people with equal access to the political world, might be the thing to close the gap. Perhaps instead of calling young people lazy and rebellious, we need to facilitate a system that includes them. Hearing what young people care about, prioritise and feel they need to be included is a good start, however it isn’t enough.
Bibliography
Afflick, R. (2022) British Youth Council reiterates priorities to new minister for young people, British Youth Council. Available at: https://www.byc.org.uk/news/2022/british-youth-council-reiterates-priorities-to-new-minister-for-young-people (Accessed: March 16, 2023).
Barrett, M. (2018) Young people’s civic and political engagement and global citizenship, United Nations. United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/young-peoples-civic-and-political-engagement-and-global-citizenship (Accessed: March 15, 2023).
Booth, R.B. (2023) Youth are interested in political action, but lack support and opportunities, Circle at Tufts. Available at: https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/youth-are-interested-political-action-lack-support-and-opportunities (Accessed: March 15, 2023).
Boston Medical (2021) Performative activism, Boston Medical Center. Available at: https://www.bmc.org/glossary-culture-transformation/performative-activism#:~:text=Examples%3A,human%20rights%20of%20LGBTQ%20people. (Accessed: March 15, 2023).
Nolsoe, E. (2019) Many young people feel their vote doesn’t matter, YouGov. YouGov. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/23/young-people-are-more-likely-feel-disenfranchised (Accessed: March 15, 2023)
Pometsey, O. (2020) Knife crime and mental health are young people’s biggest political concerns. we should be listening to them, British GQ. Available at: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/young-people-politics (Accessed: March 15, 2023).
Sime, D. and Behrens, S. (2022) “Marginalized (non)citizens: Migrant youth political engagement, volunteering and performative citizenship in the context of Brexit,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, pp. 1–25. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2142061.
Weinberg, D.J. (2021) Shout out UK – the home of Political Literacy and Youth Voice, https://www.shoutoutuk.org. Available at: https://www.shoutoutuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/The-Missing-Link-Report-Digital-APPG-on-Political-Literacy-Report-Shout-Out-UK-Dr-James-Weinberg.pdf (Accessed: March 16, 2023).