Have our government lost our younger audience? With voting turnouts for younger people being significantly lower than older generations, we must ask ourselves why? The Parliament briefing about political disengagement in 2021 acknowledged themselves, that the younger you are the less likely you are to register to vote.
Although it is well recorded with studies indicating younger people participate less in traditional, formal politics (e.g. voting and party memberships) they do engage in other forms of political engagement. However, studies have also revealed that despite their seeming lack of interest in formal political activities, young people are attracted to, and often engage in, informal and alternative modes and styles of participation in political life (O’Toole, 2015).
Keating and Melis (2017) propose that social media provide a new solution to the challenge of political engagement amongst young people. They discuss that young people are using social media to redefine political engagement by creating a medium of communication to express their political preferences.
Keating and Melis (2017) found in a study of 2025 young adults aged 22-29 in England that online political expression is relatively widespread. However, online institution-orientated engagement such as following MP’s on Twitter, or following political campaigns led by officials is a less prevalent practice. Young people were more likely to interact with political pages created by ordinary people. We wanted to find examples of young people using social media for political expression and understand their point of view as to why young people are disengaged in traditional political avenues and may find expressing and engaging in politics easier online.
Pages created by Hannah Gordon, creator of @speakupsafespace on Instagram and Natasha Johnson, co-founder of AllBlackLivesUK on Twitter and Instagram, both use social media to engage themselves and others in the political sphere. Expressing and educating others on their concerns and encouraging others to get involved. We asked these girls a few questions to get an insight into their social media accounts.
- What inspired you to start your page/campaign?
Hannah: “I decided to start my page after experiencing a physically and mentally abusive relationship… I found it difficult to find information and resources out there and realised that the information is usually targeted towards women. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get prevent people from being abused but I wanted to at least get them out of the situation sooner, by removing the taboo and reducing victim-blaming”
Natasha: “I was inspired to start AllBlackLivesUk because of the killing of George Floyd, just as it broke out and I was following the news, I realised and knew something has to change”
- Do you think that our current government represent you and the concerns you have?
Natasha and Hannah both said no, and believe the government make things a lot harder for their concerns to be heard. Hannah adds, “Lots of people are stuck in abusive relationships due to a whole range of financial situations, and there are laws and policies in place that make it incredibly difficult to protect survivors from abuse.” Hannah points out that we currently have an MP readmitted into the Conservative Party after sexually assaulting and harassing a colleague. Additionally, Hannah mentions the government response to the vigil held for Sarah Everard “Priti Patel wanted police to atop people gathering, and this resulted in aggressive manhandling of women who were trying to peacefully pay their respects to a woman who has lost her life”
- As a young person taking part in activism and creating a safe space how do you feel about using social media as a tool to create awareness and spread knowledge? Has this had a positive impact?
Both girls seem to express that social media has been a great tool for engagement, they both have been able to reach people internationally and find that it does have a positive impact as it creates a space for people to have a safe space or to gain knowledge about current affairs. Both girls shared that Instagram is the easiest platform to control and manage.
- Do you personally feel disengaged in traditional politics? (.e.g. voting, reading manifestos, party memberships). If so, why?
Natasha starts with “Social media is a gift and a curse, the potential to reach people is amazing however, there’s a lot of trolling online. Some people don’t think the cause is worth fighting for so, we may receive abuse from members of the public that don’t take the topic of racism in the UK seriously”. Hannah points out that not everyone has easy access to the internet and how pages like hers heavily rely on people’s interactions with her page to get people involved.
- Do you personally feel disengaged in traditional politics? (.e.g. voting, reading manifestos, party memberships). If so, why?
Hannah says she doesn’t think she’s engaged in traditional politics, like the older generations as she concludes that for younger people being a party member isn’t a ‘thing’. She adds, “Growing up in a system where constant political lying, rule-breaking, and scandals are the norm, traditionalist ideas and ways of doing things don’t seem to apply to those in government, and so they don’t resonate with the public anymore.”. While Natasha takes a stronger approach and expresses her distaste for traditional political engagement “I don’t feel heard or seen, or represented by the UK government, if they don’t care about us then I don’t care about them”.
Although the government have made attempts of raising political interest amongst youths by the introduction of compulsory teaching in GCSE Citizenship Education, many concerns that Hannah (@speakupsafespace) and Natasha (@allblacklivesuk) with the government seem to reflect amongst a lot of young people. Pontes, Henn and Griffiths (2019) conducted a survey of 1025 young people ages 18 living in England. Scotland and Wales to capture the attitudes of young people towards the government. There tends to be a pattern of distrust with the governing body, as there was a clear expression of negative views about the outcomes from democratic practice, particularly in terms of motives and actions of the political parties and elected politicians.
Are traditional politics lacking transparency? Is the government behind on capturing youth views about political engagement or are they choosing to ignore the demands of the young audience knowing they have the older generations strongly participating in traditional political activities. The digitalisation of communication has added a new path for political discussion with users like @speakupsafespace and @AllBlackLivesUK being examples of taking activism and political discussion online, it does show that youth politics has taken a new form and evolved into spaces that haven’t existed for older generations. The gap of the minds of politicians and the youth seem miles apart as now younger people seem to be engaging in political discourse online and using platforms like Twitter and Instagram to create their own sphere of engagement for themselves and others. But will the government catch up with the youth?
Works Cited
Keating, A. & Melis, G., 2017. Social media and youth political engagement: Preaching to the converted or providing a new voice for youth. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 19(4), pp. 877-894.
O’Toole, T., 2015. Beyond crisis narratives: changing modes and repertoires of political participation among young people.. Politics, Citizenship and Rights, pp. 1-15.
Pontes, A. I., Henn, M. & Griffiths, M. D., 2019. Youth political (dis)engagement and the need for citizenship education: Encouraging young people’s civic and political participation through the curriculum. Education, Citzenship and Social Justice, 14(1), pp. 3-21.
I agree with you Thyra that young people today are far more likely to engage in politics through social media than any other alternative. It’s a good way to engage large quantities of people and makes it easier to create a sense of community. However, for those who feel skeptical about relying on social media for their political engagement because of internet trolls, what would you say is a good alternative for young people to engage in politics? We obviously don’t want people to become too dependent on social media for their political engagement, so what would you recommend as an additional option for people to receive their news and stay up to date on politics? I liked that you included two different accounts from social media to show how people have found ways to engage politically in the modern day. But I’m curious about what you believe people should do beyond social media to stay engaged politically.
Hi Andrew,
I suppose nowadays and especially after COVID-19 social media has become the centre of communication. So that’s a great question! Fear of trolling online is a very valid concern and I have been subjected to backlash online, it does seem to take a toll on you. I have often wondered what exactly I do outside social media to engage myself politically.
I hold a strong belief that politics and activism do not have to go as far as creating a crowd and hurling them across the city of London to create awareness about a social problem. As amazing as it is, not everyone can do this. The personal is political is it not? So I do small things like keeping my circle in check, that is family members, friends, and work peers. It never has to be confrontational but active discussions and conversations that arise could potentially change individuals’ perspectives of a social matter and can make a difference. Word of mouth is still very much influential. I also propose we can be more passive with our engagement, I believe in supporting local businesses that might be raising funds for causes and supporting your area by turning up to organised events can be another way. I suppose it’s up to you, and what fits your comfort zone. Activism, engaging politically and creating a discussion is not a one-size-fits-all approach.
Hi Thyra!
I really liked your take on this blog! It was really interesting to read some perspectives from people who run large social media outlets and their views on government.
I noticed that both the people you interviewed had stated that they do not feel that they trust the government to represent them. i felt this was very powerful as I absolutely agree that for young people we cannot see ourselves being represented, therefore it is hard to engage in politics as a whole.
Do you feel that the government can be doing more in that sense? What can they be doing to regain the trust of young people and encourage them to be more engaged?
Hi Sophie, thank you for your feedback.
To answer your question I feel that the government really detach themselves from younger people and tend to ignore their concerns as discussed in this blog. I feel that the government can absolutely do more, for example, I believe that representation is a big factor in the lack of participation of politics. I think we should be allowing younger voices in parliamentary institutions, these voices could represent us and thus churn in more votes and political engagement.
Unfortunately, I feel that trust and the government is a very broken matter. There has been countless of scandals that have split the public and parliament. I think MPs hold too much status to the point that they seem alien like figures, the 1% of riches and carrying a very different lifestyle to the rest of the population. I believe that trust could be regain by diminishing that status from parliament members and making them seem like real people might be the right step in gaining back that trust.
Hi Thyra!
Thanks for answering my questions so well. I really hope the government listens to the ever-growing call from the younger generation!
Your solution to gaining trust back for those within government is great! I had never really thought of it from that point of view. Although I definitely agree that we need to make politicians more relatable and real, rather than the Eton snd Oxford men that we see today.
Hi Ty,
I really enjoyed your take on political engagement and social media. I particularly enjoyed the insight from the individuals who run some political social media pages. I agree with your main point that political engagement from young people looks very different from the traditional approach to politics.
I personally follow a number of political accounts similar to the ones that you have shared and I have found that they have been extremely useful in helping me become more politically engaged. As i have found such accounts make politics more simple and easy to follow compared to mainstream media particularly as social media is something many young people use on a daily basis.
Additionally, I feel that if political parties were to use social media platforms to engage with society, they would find many more young people would engage with their proposed legislation. You touch on the distrust that many people have for the government, particularly due to the recent events that happened throughout the covid pandemic. I believe that social media could be a positive way for the government to try to and gain some trust back from the public as i feel that if they begun to interact with the public on a more personal level, it would remove the ‘us’ and ‘them’ stigma that is prominante between civilians and politicans. Additionally, it would give politicans the opportunity to engage with the public on a more personal level so that the public and more specifically young people can express their expectations of the government without turning to distrupive methods of politicaly engagement such as protests.
Overall, i definately agree that social media can be an extremely effective tool in politics.