Five candidates, five parties, less than three months until Election Day, and no breaks in campaigning. Four years have flown by, and we’ve witnessed nothing but change. This upcoming Tuesday, November 5th, 2024, there will be a plethora of new young adults eligible to enter the electoral system. The drive to impact new young voters started a while ago, but their need to convince them is even more pressing this year than ever. Appealing to teens turning 18 means finding new and creative ways to be personal with voters, while relaying the candidates’ values and future initiatives. Picking the best-fit President and Vice President for our nation is an honorable responsibility that can determine the regulation of our country. Some North seniors have the honor of being included in this responsibility.
Warriors who are now eligible to vote are closely watching the candidates and the race, knowing their vote is crucial for this year’s election. It is predicted that 8 million youth will be aging into the electorate in 2024, yet 41 million members of Gen Z will be eligible to vote. Throughout the almost 600 students in the class of 2025 at NAHS, awareness of the election has risen, and the pressure is on, especially due to this year’s interesting campaigning techniques. Whether it is the notable “Brat Summer”, Twitch interviews, coconut trees, and influencer podcast sit-downs, candidates are not stopping until they reach demographics they’ve never acquired. By achieving this goal, we’ve observed influencer marketing and piggybacking on trends in social media. With influencer engagement on the rise, candidates are attempting to convince a particularly challenging voting bloc for this year’s election: young people. This continuous pattern of marketing has impacted voters significantly on political values, strategies, and overall understanding of the running prospects.
Some seniors who will turn 18 before the election date will participate in what is set to be one of the most important elections in history. Senior Vivian Carroll is one of them, with a drive to vote and a strong opinion on registering. Carroll believes to have an opinion matter and be heard, you must register. Her motivation throughout this process is her dad. His lectures were based on the importance of following the election and deciding what issues mattered most to her. She considers her dad’s influence on her to be more than that of social media when following the election and nominees. This poses an additional question: Should candidates convince more parents, which will then influence the younger generation? “Social media works to grab the attention of teens who will vote, but false information can spread like wildfire, giving a false idea of the nominees,” she said.
For Vivian Carroll, the election and campaigning process is complicated to follow because of Joe Biden dropping out late, making her and many others re-evaluate their opinions and decisions. She notices that there is a lot of campaigning on TikTok. This is because the election committees realize that in order to gain teen votes, they must use the biggest social media platforms. The majority of advertisements Carroll sees have been on TikTok, where they’re giving constant facts and opinions. Yet she doesn’t believe the overwhelming campaigning has changed her opinion, merely giving her more insight into her preferences. “My peers and I don’t read a lot on the election, so TikTok is where we access all of our information,” she said.
Senior Ryan Rucker has yet to turn 18, but his enthusiasm for teens to register to vote is evident. With Rucker as Vice President of Rho Kappa, the National Social Studies Honor Society, it is no wonder that he is also excited to help high school students engage in the democratic process. He recognizes that the votes of the youth are just as crucial as any other demographic. He sees that being given the responsibility to vote means having the power to shape the policies that will affect our future, so he urges advocating for the change that we want to see. Unlike Carroll, Rucker sees campaigning once in a while, usually on Instagram rather than TikTok. “While social media has helped me familiarize myself with candidates, I recognize the importance of looking beyond the surface,” he said. “I must conduct the research necessary to form opinions and make important decisions”.
Few NAHS students have already begun registering to vote, but those who have yet too are urged to. It all comes down to how the candidates are viewed amidst the social media frenzies they’ve put on. Will social media stand to be the sole factor in how younger adults only view politics? Will campaigners focus on the trends that will get them the bloc of young individuals? Will some of our seniors go beyond the viral buzz and examine the promises made and decisions proposed? These questions remain.
