Nov. 3, 2015
Over and over, candidates vying for a nomination from their respective parties have attempted to appeal to the youth voter. The candidates flock to social media encouraging young adults to use hashtags as a form of pseudo political engagement blinding us with references to pop culture.
Editor in Chief
Candidates like Hillary Clinton ask us to explain how student debt makes us feeling “using three emojis,” Donald Trump tweets about the score of the Patriots game and Bernie Sanders hangs out with Doc Brown only to predict his future as President of the United States.
The only thing this does for the millennial generation is make a mockery of our education level and attention span. Politicians detract from the real issues like the national debt, the economy and social justice.
From 2008 to 2012, the online population on social networking sites has increased from 33 percent to 69 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Forty-three percent of these social networking site users say they have decided to learn more about a political or social issue.
If 43 percent of social networking users want to learn, let them learn. Teach them. Don’t ramble on about a hit song from One Direction.
Instead of engaging young adults with pop culture, engage them with information on world affairs. Engage them with opportunities on how to get involved in an open forum.
