Young people have often felt disengaged from society and political matters. Are they being approached wrong?

 

 

When it comes to young people they are often faced with many stereotypes. They are seen as ‘disobedient’ and as ‘kids still growing’. In some cases they are the cause of ‘deviance’ within society. So what is the cause for such stereotypes?

‘The system is broken for young people’-Niko Omilana

Is there a massive change in young-peoples voting turnout? Is it a problem?

Since the early 1970s, just about 70% of youth politically engaged themselves. Yet, over the years there have been drastic changes within the history of young people’s engagement politically. There was a record of a 40% decrease in the 2000s.

Does the young people’s political engagement matter to the government?

In 2002 the running government added citizenship education into the teaching curriculum for key stages 3 and 4, which was mostly embedded within the PSHE classes for some institutions as well as some opting this as a stand-alone subject itself.

The idea of the extra curriculum was to support young people to gain an understanding of their roles within the society as well as to what they can and should do to maintain a healthy relationship within society through being active citizens. Moreover, to understand the laws and working government and their ideas.

Citizenship education boosted the basic political understanding for many young people and their families at home. However, over time it has not been as successful as it was hoped to be. The number of interests within this subject for young people has continuously dropped over time. Was the teaching curruculum of citizenship a fail?

Surprisingly, In the Mayor of London election 2021. There was a twist to the list of candidates.

 

Niko Omilana a well-known 23-year-old viral British prank star on YouTube, with over 4.41 million subscribers, opted to run as an independent candidate for the election. With no political experience, Niko was not held back from taking part in one of the most ‘talked about elections. London is the Capital city of England and one of the busiest and most famous cities in the world.

When Niko was asked about his reasoning for standing in the election he shared, “Young people aren’t taken seriously in politics because the government don’t give us a voice, but we have a voice, my friends, so I’m trying to see what happens when we make as much noise as possible together”. Many young people were found to share the same idea which Niko shared as for his reasoning. Young people often feel neglected through the lack of youth engagement within society and politically, overall.

Despite his experience, it was seen as quite impressive as he managed to pass through the first round of elections and secure a total of 49,638 votes! Beating other popular candidates as well as twenty other ‘serious’ candidates.

How was this possible?

Niko fought his way, to get his political stand recognised on mainstream media. He used his subscribers and fellow YouTuber creators as assets to help promote his campaign as well as to attract the attention of BBC and ITV. His manifesto was one of the most interesting manifestos to be ever seen today! Most young people called these the ‘real issues’.

The youth today are known to be opinionated as well as to voice issues, which really matter to them and for most, these were issues of concern. The idea of “free transport for under 18s and over 69s (uni student included)”, was one of the outspoken issues on social media. Most youth feel if full-time education qualifies as free travel then there should be an exception for all full-time students to travel for free. These may seem like small issues, But for some young people it does come across as a huge issue. Would you agree with this?

As Niko Omilana was taken as a literal joke by many candidates and the mainstream media from his appearance as a candidate to his independent party manifesto. There is no denying that there was no increase of engagement from young people in the London mayor’s election, even though there was no data collected of the youth turnout but the online engagement from youth about the election was quite clear as there was a record increase of 70% of online searches of Niko during his online campaign. Many young people were shocked by Niko’s participation in the election and were eager to share this with many friends, family, and other followers online and offline. As this surprise did not relate to the content of his YouTube account.

Not only Niko Omilana ran for the mayor of the London election but also Max Fosh. When Max Fosh, was asked about his political motivation, he expressed, “the two things which I wanted to do was beat (1) Laurence Fox…and also (2) try to increase the youth turnout”. This is as Max found in research that the youth turnout in the previous election has been drastically low. He further expressed that the idea of having young YouTubers being there may be able to help encourage young people to take part in voting. Despite not passing the first round of the election. Max did gain a total of 0.2% of votes. As Max did make it clear to his supporters not to vote for him as he has no political experience as well as having no promising intentions to be the mayor of London as it comes with huge responsibilities. He rather advised them to take this opportunity and research into other candidates and vote for them.

Do you think their intentions were there to boost up young people and political engagement or was it all just a stunt to gain subscribers and further content for their YouTube channel?

Do you think different approaches should be taken into consideration as generations of youth are ‘different’ and would need ‘different’ approaches of engagement to understand and participate?

Let me know your thoughts, in the comment section bellow!

Bibliography;

• Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. n.d. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/908347/SECONDARY_national_curriculum_-_Citizenship.pdf> [Accessed 19 February 2022].

• 2021. [online] Available at: <https://itp.live/news/11882-will-youtuber-niko-omilana-be-the-next-mayor-of-london/> [Accessed 20 February 2022]

• n.d. [online] Available at: <https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldcitizen/118/11806.htm> [Accessed 19 February 2022]

• Twitter. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://twitter.com/nikoomilana/status/1387064039008833539> [Accessed 19 February 2022]

• Burke, O., 2021. London mayor election 2021 results: Who won?. [online] The Sun. Available at: <https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/14858123/london-mayoral-election-results/> [Accessed 20 February 2022].