To figure out how to vote and who to vote for in next week’s midterms, young people are turning to those they can relate to: content creators on social media.
Jamie Cohen, assistant professor in the media studies department at CUNY Queens College, said videos like Afshar’s are characteristic of the political content Gen Z consumes: not too serious,
“They speak a different language than all previous generations,” Cohen said. “They interpret media completely different than millennials, Gen X or boomers, and as Bo Burnham would say, they see the world almost cynically or ironically.”Gillian Brooks, assistant professor of strategic marketing at King’s College London, said Gen Zers are less likely to trust authority figures or institutions, from politicians to traditional news media.
Political discourse on TikTok and Twitch is the latest evolution of bringing politics to online spaces where people already gather. Millennials watched on YouTube, Brooks noted, as Obama ran for office in the first U.S. presidential campaign uploaded to the video-sharing website. Gen Zers, by contrast, aren’t necessarily looking to hear someone with a political background.
Politicians, Shlafstein said, have backtracked on campaign promises to address issues such as climate changeGen Zers. But when young people vote in record droves, they put pressure on politicians to pass “legislation that will hopefully re-instill faith in our institutions,” he said. Shlafstein believes Gen Z for Change can boost midterms turnout in swing states such as North Carolina, which could help decide Senate control.
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