Alright, everyone, pull back on the reins: Generation Y has formed a circlejer...nevermind.
This generation is politically engaged, argues Supriya Dwivedi, characterizing this by the claim: that we are "Constantly connected to Twitter and updating our newsfeeds."
Wait a minute, that's what it means to be politically engaged? Being on Twitter? Watching that digital tickertape, not of news, but of the very types of soundbites we seek to criticize, and mock every chance we get when it's one of the talking heads on TV who make them?
Dwivedi says "updating our newsfeeds." But updating our newsfeeds with what, exactly? Some Jezebel article where the word "fucking" is only outpaced by the word "the" and passing that off as feminism? Or is Dwivedi referring to being politically engaged in the form of creating Tumblrs once someone like Romney makes a non-comment such as "binders full of women"?
Maybe she is speaking of forcing our politicians to use social media to communicate with us? Surely, she is not referring to that much-publicized night when President Obama -- you know, leader of the free world and all that -- performed an Ask Me Anything on Reddit, only to be flooded with questions such as, "Mr. President, would you rather fight a hundred duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck?" An interesting thought experiment to be sure, but I hear the man's quite busy, oughtn't people be asking him something more relevant?
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe when Dwivedi says we are politically engaged, what she means to say is we turn presidential debates into drinking games, then complain that there weren't any "one-liners" or "zingers," even though we ramble on incessantly about how the media has destroyed any semblance of actual political discourse.
Get off it; this generation is no more "politically engaged" than any other before it. We simply give off the appearance of being so, by "sharing" and "publishing" articles from the New Yorker, Harper's, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy -- look at me, this is what I read! Aren't I an intellectual treat? We have more channels through which to voice our opinions; that doesn't mean our opinions are any more valid.
We've mistaken being politically opinionated for being politically engaged. An opinion doesn't mean a thing -- unless, of course, you're part of that dying field called punditry -- but a vote does. But young people aren't voting. Then again, I suppose it's a lot more interesting to refuse to vote and tweet about it, than to go to the polling booths and pick, to alter Churchill, "the least bad option."
"But why vote?" we, the Millennials, chime, "There's no one who reflects 100 per cent my God-given beliefs which are wholly sacred and not open to compromise."
Well, what beliefs are those? Are they merely the tired shopping list of abortion, gay marriage and global warming, which Dwivedi seems to stop at in her blog? Or do they also include the yawn issues of balancing the budget, taxation, and military funding which are sure to dull the senses of any cocktail party-goer? You know the type of stories I'm talking about; the ones that matter and then disappear from the front page once Kate Middleton makes the world-changing-oh-my-God announcement that she's pregnant.
But even if the Millennials saw the economy as meaning something other than jobs in the fields of their choosing, how could there possibly be a politician that reflects all of our values? How can there be a perfect political prince charming in this age of obscure, criss-crossing, contradictory "isms" which seemed to have been developed so that we always have something to take offense to? It says a lot about this generation that they fawn over that poor man's Captain Morgan, Justin Trudeau because he wears jeans and talks about Facebook.
We are not politically engaged. We are politically opinionated. But opinions, however well informed, are not a substitute for the democratic voting process. And the democratic process is by no means perfection; it's a game of compromise. The sooner we learn that, and the sooner that we stop pretending that 140-character messages makes us politically engaged -- as attending party conferences, and going to the voting booth do -- the better off our generation will be.
-- Abacus Data has focused research on the Canadian Millennial. Read more here.
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Follow Daniel Alexandre Portoraro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dportoraro
Why did the Harper Conservative government suddenly change their tune on Israel?
I'd say The Harper governments about face was a direct result of the buzz on Twitter & all the comments made to news website articles. The publics backlash on social media hits home everytime, take Tony Clement & the CRTC UBB issue, how about Vic Toews & bill C-30.
A vote says a great many things & is very important. A vote also adds validity & support to the system. The Political Parties say look voter turnout is up, the people are happy with the system, there's no need for change. The more people who can be intimidated & coerced into voting the more validity the system gains.
You should only vote when you have a clear choice that you can support. Voting is one of our most basic Rights, voting is a choice. Like all choices it comes with two options, the Right to vote & the right to not vote. Both are of equal importance & value in a free & Democratic society. Our war veteran's fought & died not so we could vote, they died so we would have the Right to choose.
Choose which choice you make wisely!
I guess your hope was to simply create that air of fear & it would somehow be enough to discredit my comment.
It's the economy, stupid, not the politics.
Gen Yers want an economy with less income inequality and more chance for well-paying jobs in their chosen field; but none of the political parties have policies that would change the corporate economy.
Gen Yers want an economy that works for people, not the current economy that makes people work for it.
They want an economy that will accomodate them with their education, their experience, their skills and their interests; not the current economic terrorism that scares them into obedient submission to corporate interests.
But they don't see any political party that would make those changes. They know all the parties are corporate parties, for the corporations, of the corporations, by the corporations. So they are disengaged from voting and party politics.
No, Daniel has it backwards.
Being politically engaged isn't about voting for one coporate shill or another every four years and submitting quietly until they are incited to again "perform their civic duty".
It's not about obedience to elected liars and dictators..
Tweeting and posting is a good start towards the mass movements generation Y needs to generate if it's to get anything they want.
But they are too cool and passive.
They need to be well-nformed and opinionated in a more organized and passionate way, 24 hours a day.
Voter turnout for 2011 Canadian election
18-24 - 38.8%, 36.9% for males, 40.9% for females
25-34 - 45.1%, 42.5% for males, 47.7% for females
Lots of sign-waving, but a severe shortage of vote-casting.
Look at the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is still alive and more organized. They openly said they would not support a political party or candidate because neither side represented or supported their views. Instead they raise awareness and create change at a grassroots level outside the political system. Their "Rolling Jubilee" debt-elimination mission right now. Currently on track to eliminate 9 million in health care debts in the US.