Why aren't they voting?

1/24/2011

Chapter one deals with discussing why younger generations do not vote or become as active in politics as the senior members of society. So, the future of America, answer me this..."Why aren't young people voting?" Are they turned off of the government? Are they too apathetic? You tell me why your generation is seen to be less active than generations of prior. Also, respond to a classsmates post as well. This will be up until Wednesday...This is a participation grade. Happy Blogging!

22 Comments

Luke Seagroves

1/23/2011 11:01:31 pm

Our generation has not had many major events occur to us, so we are not as interested as prior generations. Besides 9/11 nothing else has really happened. If our generation does not become more interested than we may regret it in the future when we are interested and something major is ocurring and we want change.

Korri Sassman

1/23/2011 11:07:40 pm

I believe our generation is too apathetic towards the government because, like Luke said, nothing major has happened such as the 9/11 and issues dealing with Bush and the war. Our generation wants change now and if we don't think we can get it, we do nothing.

Lynnsey Coffey

1/23/2011 11:09:25 pm

The younger generation aren't voting and being involved in the government because there aren't actions of the government that are affecting the younger generation currently. Since there is nothing affecting them then they're going to act apathetic. However, there are events that have increased involvement such as September 11th and President Obama's campaign. Media is also a big factor of younger generation involvement.

Hannah Love

1/24/2011 03:37:47 am

Young people have not been taught the importance of politics within their culture. Wars, national tragedies, and political discourse are SO public in our society that young people take them for granted and see them as the problems of generation older than themselves. Simply stated, the current generation has been desensitized to political issues.

Many may think, “It’s going to happen whether I’m involved or not. Why should I waste my time?”

There is also a call for instant gratification as youths are notorious for a lack of patience. Government decisions cannot be made overnight. With such little progress shown immediately in politics, it may seem that nothing is happening at all. This brings us back to the “waste of time” point.

I believe this all feeds into Lynnsey’s comment that the current government isn’t making decision that affect young people. This is an incredibly common misconception. Citizens that are twenty now will be thirty or forty when the largest of the current government solutions truly come into play. It is simply the shortsightedness that makes high school and college students oblivious to the fact that, very soon, they will age and have to deal with the (good or bad) consequences of the decisions that are made today.

Austin Mincey

1/24/2011 05:41:52 am

Apathy in my generation is ubiquitous. Not only are younger Americans apathetic towards government and politics, they all too often face any aspect of life in a stoic and lazy manner.

A common misconception of the government by the younger generation, as Hannah has previously said, is that policies and actions of the American government do not affect it. The "here and now" attitude accepted by most young people in today's society causes this misconception. As young adults, we often forget to look past tomorrow and see that we will, too, grow older as time passes. EVERYTHING that happens now affects us.

It is honestly a sad thing to believe the future of America lies with an apathetic mind. I would like to think it is going to change, but being raised in a mindset as such that of the previously stated, the future of American government is in dire need of attention.

Kelsie Gibson

1/24/2011 05:44:07 am

Many teenagers today are less informed when it comes to current events surrounding the government and political parties. Teenagers are more concerned with watching Jersey Shore and going on Facebook than they are about watching CNN or reading The New York Times.

While we could blame more technology and gadgets as the cause for apathetic teenagers, the main reason is that we feel the government’s issues don’t really affect us so we have no reason voting on them. In the 1960s voting was a top priority because, as we said in class, during this time period 18-25 year olds were being affected by the Vietnam War and Civil Rights, so voting seemed more appealing. After the Nixon election people lost trust in the government and teenagers became more apathetic with elections. The only time you would see a slight increase in voting rates was when there was a big issue or a new face, such as with the 2001 election and the past 2008 election. Teenagers between the ages of 18-25 only vote when they feel that they are being affected.

But what we don’t realize is that while yes the Healthcare Bill doesn’t affect us now, one day we will not be covered by our parents and we will have to live with the choices the government and people before decided on.

Tying in with Hannah's last comment, the laws being passed today will have an affect on us as we grow older, so if we are eligible to vote, we should take a stand on all issues now rather than later.

Jennifer Williams link

1/24/2011 06:01:22 am

Hannah is correct. Youth feel like they are wasting their precious time worrying about the government. It does not pertain to me, so why should I take notice? The fact is that it does pertain to youth, maybe not today, but in the future. If young people do not take the time to educate themselves now on current events and governmental policy then they cannot complain later in life when they come across a law, policy,etc. that they do not like. One quotation from the reading that really struck me was said by Thomas Jefferson. He said, "There have never been, nor ever will be, a people who are politically ignorant and free." If we do not keep up to date, and take action on things that we do not approve of, then we have no one to blame but ourselves when this country goes down the drain.

Also, besides the obvious reasons that were mentioned in class today, such as the lack of earth shattering events in our lifetime, I think young people stay out of it because they feel like they are going to be criticized by their peers if they do, and they do not want to deal with the confrontation. So,they choose to keep their mouths closed.

Prayer Jackson

1/24/2011 08:36:06 am

I agree with the majority of the blogs so far, the youth simply do not vote in great numbers when the issues do not directly concern them. However, I feel as if the reason is more than the youth being somewhat apathetic and unconcerned about recent issues. As a technology generation, ages 18-25 tend to value what they see in the news, in magazines, and on websites, which are almost never politics or issues within the government. In today’s society, the media does not cater to the youth’s interest and political parties typically do not try to gain their votes.
As Lynnsey Coffey said, “Media is also a big factor of younger generation involvement.” As seen in the recent Obama campaign, the youth are eager to be involved in the government. While they may not vote with numbers as high as when the issues involve them, when targeted directly they still maintain a strong interest in the government. The younger generations realize that when they come together, they can change the government. Yet politicians often times do not take the time to gather the votes and opinions of the youth.
Times have truly changed and until something great happens with effects on the entire generation, the youth simply are not going to vote. During the 1960’s, for example the great increase in voting within the youth was because of the draft and broad spectrum of people affected. Recently a select group of college students became more active in government when they received cuts on scholarship money and tuition increase. Needless to say voting increased as they used to their voice in hopes of change. Although less active than prior generations, the youth still use their voice when necessary.

Joseph Coca

1/24/2011 09:08:57 am

We have many other things to distracted us from being involved with politics. Alone, just going through channels we try to look for chaos something to put us away from a normal life and when anything with government appears some think.. "OH, this looks exciting" (sarcasm)... It is very hard too keep our attention and attract us to anything dealing with Government. Now there are quite a bit of exceptions but most of the time we think maybe we'll care when we are older and effected. As most of the blogs included.. if it doesn't effect us personally we go else where, i completely agree. We branch out and watch ridiculous MTV shows of people beating each other up. When the times comes and we learn our opinion does count..then... we will learn. :)

Dillon Robinson

1/24/2011 09:12:04 am

Everything that has been said so far has been on point as far as involvement of our generation goes. After thinking about it today, I noticed that I watch the news and read the newspaper on occasion to see what is currently big in our area on what is now on the national agenda, but most of that news deals with the new racetrack expansion or the latest tragedy such as the shooting in Tucson. Does it draw our attention to such issues such as gun control? Yes, we start to think about it, but nobody has really said anything about what to do about it. As stated in class and in earlier blogs, we are less inclined to pay attention to the government and the things they do because it does not directly affect us. The healthcare reform was the bulk of the Obama administrations campaign. THe reason I believe it was successful in drawing in that age group between 18-25 is because that is the group most targeted and affected by the healthcare reform. Even though they may not have neccessarily liked Obama or anything else he said, they were going to vote for him because he is doing something that is advantageous to that group. Nothing else is going on that is significant enough for the younger generation to know about politics and what is currently going on.

Mackenzie Church

1/24/2011 10:09:27 am

I agree with all of the previous blog posts. Most young people do not take an active role in voting because they do not think that it affects them. Most people like instant gratification, and they do not feel they achieve it by voting. In addition to this, media plays a huge role in the lives of young people. Many people are consumed into television and the internet and feel they do not have enough time to keep up with the current events.

In response to Luke's comment, there has not been numerous events that have shaped the lives of the young people in America. Most only can relate to the 9/11 event. Other generations have countless life-changing events during the course of their life.

Rupert

1/24/2011 10:01:09 pm

Kids don't care. Kids don't like government beacuse they don't understand it. They don't understand it, because comapared to the drama of reality TV and celebrity drama and the things that happen in their lifes completely over shadow any semblance of concern for the workings of the government. Older people are used to an era where people were more inclined to participate. Younger people see nothing they find worth listening to.

Kathryn Auten

1/24/2011 10:42:49 pm

People are not voting for the simple reason that they feel the government is ineffective and is corrupt. By not voting they are not providing their involvement in something they feel is wronging them. Young people are turned off by the government when they see political advertisements are slandering others and do not see much progress in policies that are late in coming into effect. Young people are apathetic. Hey even I am apathetic at times about the government. Our generation is less active as we have plenty of other activities and distractions from the government and the government has less of an affect on us. Such as during the Vietnam War drafting affected them and we do not have anything like that that is effecting us.

I agree with Kelsie that young people are more concerned in social activites as opposed to the government. I will admit I am more concerned socially than in my government. Maybe this class will change that....maybe

Michael Church

1/25/2011 04:14:41 am

Young people today are only worried about social status. Being involved and or caring about politics isn't seen as "cool". While back in the day politics consisted of the main topics of discussion since television and internet were not quite perfected yet.

April Grimes

1/25/2011 04:25:34 am

I agree with Kathryn, the younger generation doesn't care to take a part in the government because all that is advertised is slandering one another. We are not as interested in government as our parents or grandparents generation because we feel it has no effect on us. There are too many distractions for us to get away from reality, our life consists of the social network, not politics. We have grown up in a generation that is more advanced in technology than the generation of our grandparents. Therefore, the news is a thing of the past to us. It's all about facebook, or the show that is coming on television that night. News channels such as CNN have no interest to us because we do not care. I am also apathetic towards government, as well as many other people my age.

In response to Luke's comment 9/11 was the only drastic event that has occurred an effected us as a whole. That was the only event that made us realize that something could happen to the US.

Jennifer Williams link

1/25/2011 07:36:35 am

I love Rupert's comment. He but it bluntly and was correct, not to mention it made me giggle. :)

JaYana Lot

1/25/2011 09:26:05 pm

I strongly agree with Rupert because it is the simple truth. However now that we have established that kids do not care, my thing is, why doesn't someone "make" them care. Why sit back and allow our generation to be simple minded about politics. Even though nothing has strongly affected our generation since 9/11 , things that are occuring now will affect us when we advance into our adult lives. So we fail to realize that ignorance in the present will overlap into the future when we decided to care. Yes, we all know that young people do not care but I belive that a big part of that, aside from no interest in politics, is because of laziness and no one making us aware that we actually need to care.The most motivation we receive is to vote. We are not pushed to go out and be more active in politics and that is also a reason. Most kids our age are not self-motivated, and leaders, elders, etc should step up and teach this generation rather than point the finger.

Briana m.v. Murray

1/26/2011 02:13:07 am

Today in the United States society, I believe that teenagers are not voting due to their lack of feelings towards the issues at hand. For example, while most candidates that are up for voting discuss issues that are of great concern to the older generation, teenagers see the issues as having little to no effect on them, such as health care. Moreover, teenagers do not have the mindset that their vote will actually make a difference, because they believe that their one vote would not matter due to it just being one. In reality, that is false.
For example, John F. Kennedy won his presidency in 1960 just by getting one more vote per precinct in Illinois than his opponent.
In contrast, in the United States today, the majority of teenagers are more interested in other things than voting such as the following: social networks, video games, and sports. I think that the main reason for this is because they are more drawn to it due to those activities having more attention dealing with media. If voting along with the issues being voted upon were broadcasted more and made more aware, then teenagers would have more knowledge about it. Even if this does happen, some teens would still overlook it.

Lastly I think that the majority of teens do not fully understand politics, and have no idea of what is going on. Moreover, I agree with Kathryn that teenagers believe that the government is ineffective towards them.

Jacquesea Williamson

1/26/2011 11:37:25 am

I agree with Mackenzie, Brianna and the others who stated that youth are not involved in the government because they have been cultivated into the media and its madness but I somewhat disgree with Korri and Lucas' comments. No, there haven't been many events that have taken place in our generation as far as national threats to our freedom and security but there have been many issues locally that have threatened us.
For instance, health care started on a local level. It took it a while to get recognized as a national issue, but yet youth still weren't taking a stand. The reform is something that could drastically affect OUR future.
Although the voting percentage rose in the previous election, I still feel as though the youth aren't involved as they should be. It may be due to the lack of education on how the system works and what issues to vote on but it may also fall back on the fact that some youth think we are invincible. If it isn't directly affecting us now or if it isn't making the headline news then we don't care to be enlightened. To be honest, I don't know of a way to get the youth more involved now. The issues can't always be catered directly to us. There are some things that affect others. In order to change the way things are headed, I feel the need for YOUTH to start caring at an earlier age and begin to educate and influencing our peers.

Logan Green

9/11/2011 01:02:09 am

Many teens realize that their votes do not
count, because of the electoral college.
It's not that teens are apathetic, its that politics are still boring to most.
Once teens start to mature and become the
adults of the country, then, I think, that
they will become more involved in politics. In fact this was actually what
happened to the generation before us, this generation is just more publicized.

Jožko link

3/22/2012 06:43:26 pm

will come back shortly

Kaitlin

9/16/2012 12:52:24 am

I just think voting is boring. Theres nothing exciting happening in the world. that i actually care about. It's not that voting's not cool, it's just that we don't see it as a cool thing to do...it's boring. I know all you adults are gonna be like "well get over it" or what ever, instead of just stereo-typing us, listen to a real 20 year old. Some of us may also feel like our vote won't count or it doesn't matter what we think. 18-21 year olds had the smallest amount of voters in 2008, if none of us voted Barak Obama still would have become president. That's why i think a lot of younger people don't vote because we think you guys don't care. Thanks

Why aren't they voting?

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