Social Media Influence on the Youth Vote

Editorial from AMP Youth Leader Mariane (Brazil)

Who did you vote for in the latest election? Why did you vote for them? In recent democratic processes, it seems that a great number of people have been voting for whoever has more followers. It’s simple: if you sympathize with a certain politician, or if they appear to have the same thoughts and opinions as you, then they should represent you. Why not, right?

What we may forget is that these are the people who are actively creating better (or worse) conditions for our lives. Back in Athens, when democracy was first emerging, citizens debated public issues face to face, analyzing arguments and ideas that best fit the reality they were living in. Nowadays, however, even though we don’t argue political decisions directly, we have the power to decide who is choosing for us. Who would you trust to decide important aspects concerning your life? Your parents? Maybe your friends? As mentioned by Politico, only 19% of young citizens trust the US federal government, and 18% trust Congress. The fact is, most of us don’t have people we actually trust in political positions. So that decision has to be made based on facts, attitudes, and critical thinking.

Proper voting criteria include analyzing a candidate’s history, public policies, intentions for new projects, and what they have already voted for. It doesn’t matter if you’re supporting someone from the right, the left, or the center; it is only important that we understand what that segment stands for, which flags they raise, and whether those values are aligned with yours in the deepest sense possible. That way, you can identify who is actually going to defend your point of view and vote consciously.

Though these would be the ideal aspects to analyze in a politician’s story, social media has an important role in voting patterns in the 21st century and has been changing the way we see political positioning. A study conducted in Brazil showed that 27% of teenagers consider politicians to be influencers due to their constant use of social media. From that perspective, at a time when we see governments “collabing” with influencers, Gen Z is constantly surrounded by an unspoken belief that you should vote for “who you like best” or “who has more followers.” Did you vote for a certain politician only because someone you knew voted for them? Odds are the answer is yes, even if that influence came from your family. Lately, social media influencers have been taking that place of “someone you knew.”

According to the Tufts University CIRCLE report, over 77% of young voters rely on social media as one of their main political information sources. In that context, young voters have started to understand political policies in a shallow way. When you vote for a candidate an influencer voted for or campaigned for, you’re not voting for someone who represents you, but for a politician connected to a person you don’t actually know. An influencer most likely has a different routine, perspectives, and social and economic status than most of us. And just like that, we’re voting because of one-minute videos that we identify with, maybe just for a few seconds. On the other hand, if that video shows us something we don’t agree with, we immediately reject it—because how could anyone think something different from us? (That’s political polarization for you.)

Along with that, herd morality, as explained by Friedrich Nietzsche, plays quite a part in Gen Z’s view of democratic systems. Especially among young people, it’s very easy to believe that whoever “everyone is voting for” is already going to win anyway, and that one young person’s vote isn’t going to change the outcome, so you just vote with the majority. But the truth is, when you vote consciously, you influence other people to analyze who they’re voting for. And vote by vote, we will start electing people who will actually stand by us.

In the end, democracy isn’t about the number of followers, voters, or likes a politician has, but about the awareness and critical thought of everyone who voted for them. When we limit our voting to the most likable representatives, we’re not only weakening democracy itself but also harming our own society. If we want better governments, the change needs to start with us—choosing who will fight to improve it.

References:

Youth Rely on Digital Platforms, Need Media Literacy to Access Political Information | CIRCLE

 Young Americans ‘continue to lose faith in government institutions’ – POLITICOPesquisa mostra que jovens veem alguns políticos como influenciadores digitais