Within the 21st century, technology has had a massive influence on the way that we live our lives, it has become so easy to access information from our phones. Through the rise of technology, social networking sites have taken over especially within the younger generation. With social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook information about political engagement has become accessible. However, the older generation believe that social media is having a detrimental effect on the younger generations involvement in politics as we are not actively engaging. I found myself being an example of this, as I find myself voicing my own opinion about political issues on social media but not actively politically engaging by voting or taking part in protests.
The civic project, Vromen (2016) has found that many young people are politically engaged via social media and conducted a study by putting young people in focus groups and giving them questionnaires. They found that 90% of young people used Facebook to politically engage as they felt that it was a platform for them to express their emotions and views politically. It could be argued that social media has had a detrimental effect on the political engagement of young people. However, I feel that young people are just creating different platforms to politically engage and feel valued.
Picture from Crosier & Puhl (2013)
Social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have become a platform in which many young people politically engage, it could be argued that young people have now become standby citizens and would rather politically engage via social media on issues that matter to them and affect them in their everyday lives, Sloam (2013). An example is the #BlackLivesMatter and #WomensMarch movement. black lives matter was a political movement that many young people were engaged in, although this was a social issue in America, it went viral through social media, this lead to young people taking charge and protesting in the United States and this movement eventually spread to the United Kingdom. Many young people such as myself got involved in the peaceful protests. Women’s March was also a political movement which was focused on the empowerment of women, thousands of women attended this event and all came together and spoke about their experiences, such as inequality etc. It is clear that social media has a powerful effect on our generation and it is also inspiring to see that although young people are not politically engaging by voting in elections, they are taking part in political movements that interest them.
Picture from Seekers hub blog (2017)
I’ve also noticed that there has been a rise in petitions amongst the younger generation, as I have signed quite a few myself and once the target of signatures has been met, it is then debated in the houses of parliament. Young people in today’s generation are concerned with peace and equality when discussing political issues and although some young people may feel as if they do not have a voice within politics in our society, using other forms of political engagement by signing petitions, gives us a young people a voice. Vromen (2016) found that many young people felt marginalized from politics, which is why they did not get involved with politics. They also felt as politics is about the ‘self-interest of the elite’ Henn & Foard (2013). It seems as if most political parties does not consider the interests of young people, this was very clear through the Brexit movement as 75% of young people aged 18-24 voted to stay in Cresci (2016), including myself and I was really disheartened as this wouldn’t only affect my future but those younger than me, as they may not have to opportunity to study or work abroad. This left a lot of young people feeling powerless and many of us came together and voiced our frustration through social media.
The older generation may feel that social media is having a detrimental effect on the younger generations political engagement as they may feel as if we are not taking it seriously. I think this is due to the lack of knowledge that is taught about politics as many young people do not know a lot about politics, so there could be a fault within the education system. Making voting compulsory should also be considered. However, a lot of us young people use social media as a platform to express ourselves and I feel that this should be something that those who are in power should consider, when making political decisions that may affect us in the future as we are the future, so we should able to have a voice in what we want in our society as social media is our platform, to discuss political and social issues that are close to our hearts.
Bibliography
19th, J., Democracy, 2013, identity, culture, Comments, J.S., 2013. Young people are less likely to vote than older citizens, but they are also more diverse in how they choose to participate in politics. EUROPP.
20th, O., Vromen, 2016|Ariadne, Comments, U., 2016. Is Facebook a site of political engagement for young people? British Politics and Policy at LSE.
Black Lives Matter Archives, n.d. . SeekersHub Blog.
Cresci, E., readers, G., 2016. Meet the 75%: the young people who voted to remain in the EU. The Guardian.
Eurydice – Focus on | EACEA [WWW Document], n.d. URL http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/Eurydice/focus-on/young_people_politics_en.php (accessed 2.21.17).
Henn, M., Foard, N., 2014. Social differentiation in young people’s political participation: the impact of social and educational factors on youth political engagement in Britain. Journal of Youth Studies 17, 360–380. doi:10.1080/13676261.2013.830704