By Dillon McDuffie Staff Writer
Within the modern political world hitting a specific focus target has never been more important as well as understood. In a world of influencers and celebrity endorsements the name of the game has changed. The younger demographic has been a key target of recent political pursuits by both democratic and republican candidates. With many politicians seeing the opportunity to use the most viable tool at the hand of these voters for their own good: social media.
“To contextualize young people’s attitudes towards digital and social media platforms, it is first important to understand where youth receive their information.” Grace Yoon of the Harvard Political Review says, “Nearly three in four respondents regularly receive political information from digital sources, including social media platforms, cable television networks, and podcasts”
As college students and young people in general it is near impossible to walk through a day, let alone a political season, without any sense of political interception. It is woven into our daily lives as easily as the routine of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yet just because it is so common and accessible, does not mean it is reliable or trustworthy in the slightest. From out of context quotes to resurfaced speeches, the internet has turned the political domain into a warzone designed to confuse and persuade you.
Being the first generation to grow up today, our views and tendencies are like no other before us. We get our information from everything from the radio to discord chat rooms.
“Comedians,” says ECC’s Benjamin Bruggemann, “Comedians, which is the wrong way to get it, because they’re just poking fun at everyone and they don’t really have a strong standpoint so it’s kind of the worst person to take news from.”
That at the end of the day though, is the essence of social media’s play into the political world. It is not necessarily new in its entirety, rather it has just exploded. The internet and social media for that matter have always been a source of entertainment, but we are now using it as our sole source of political, economic, and social research. We always have and always will gravitate towards what makes us laugh, gasp, and come back for more. Now it just comes at the cost of political and social awareness more than ever. From SNL to Kill Tony, viral exploits of a candidate or events often leave deeper impacts in our minds than the person or events that inspire them.
Which begs the question, is it the politics, parody, or interest that is actually drawing the minds of today’s youth to these political figures.
ECC Cornerstone 