Youth Vote May Not Live Up to the Hype

Youth Vote May Not Live Up to the Hype

By Kieran Dunstan, NewsTeam
Last Update: September 16, 2012

Regardless of the intense publicity the election is receiving in various social media platforms, young Americans are not expected to surpass 2008’s electoral turnout.
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With the upcoming election less than two months away,
Facebook and Twitter have become the new forums for
political expression among millions of young Americans.

In the age of social media, it is now the norm for politicians
to have YouTube Channels, Twitter accounts and Facebook
pages, allowing them to interact and stay in touch with their
followers. In fact, in late August, President Obama did an
“I Am A” on Reddit in which he answered questions asked
by the Reddit community.

Both Mitt Romney and President Obama’s campaigns have
implemented social media as a crucial part of their campaign
plans. Barack Obama has 24,072,492 “likes” on Facebook. Mitt Romney has 1,271,480.

Zach Silverman, A Senior at the University of Colorado, faced an overflowing email inbox full of submissions. Silverman, an international affairs major created the realsolutions.com, last summer, as a website designed for college students to submit political opinion pieces.

The idea came to Silverman one day while interning for US Representative Jared Polis this summer in Washington D.C..

Silverman’s only requirement for peoples’ submissions is, “they must offer a solution, they can’t just complain about a problem.” The goal is to usher in more solutions and less complainants.

Social media inherently revolves around the younger generations of Americans. It’s no wonder that President Obama’s campaign, which received a boost from the younger demographic is utilizing social media.

In 2008, the youth voter turnout increased to 51.1 percent, the third highest rate ever, surpassing the expected amount by 2 million.

The power of social media can only carry politics so far and the online hubbub may have less of an influence than expected.

Critics of the power of social media cite Congressman Ron Paul’s dominant social media and online campaigns. Paul has a strong and powerful online following, more so than Romney or any other Republican candidate. However, the reality is that Romney is Republican Nominee despite having a noticeably smaller online presence than Paul.

If social media were used to predict the election, the prediction would be in favor of Obama winning in a landslide. However, the current polls indicate that this race will be very close.

Furthermore, current Gallup Poll numbers specify that young voters will have a smaller turnout than last election due to lack of enthusiasm.

“Its easy to type up a tweet about your thoughts on American’s foreign policy, its hard to get a ride down to the polls and cast a vote,” mused Silverman.

Zach promises that he will vote this November, but acknowledges that nothing is certain.

“At the end of the day, the people who truly care will make it to the polls. Having an opinion is not enough, you must turn it into action.”