Who Invited the Political Activist to the Sleepover?

Photo by Eugene Gologursky/WireImage

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Picture the scene: your friends and you are all sitting around at a sleepover, pizza and candy is nearby and plentiful, a romcom is playing in the background and you’re all talking about…boys? Drama? Celebrity crushes? Well, if this were my friends and I in freshman year of high school, the correct answer would be: Politics.

Ever since middle school, it’s been the case that I have been interested in politics, and miraculously, I found a close group of preteens that had similar passions aligned with my own. Having found each other in the first Trump term, every hangout usually involved some griping about a recent, incoherent statement the president made or some policy that, though we almost certainly had no idea what the implications were, we had issue with. Not exactly your typical 13-year-old gossip sesh.

I remember telling my parents about these democratic discourses my friends and I would have at sleepovers and them being shocked that some kids who couldn’t even get a PA work permit should be taking issue with the labor conditions at Amazon. For the sake of dinner table conversation, I’m sure they wish we were just talking about school scandals or what happened at practice; drama pairs better with takeout.

My mom remarked that when she was my age, politics was just about the last thing on her mind and that, in fact, it wasn’t until she was out of college that she started taking interest in the Land of Legislation and American politics. I was taken aback upon hearing this. What do you mean you didn’t constantly see or hear content about the President’s latest public rambling filled with typos? Or see ironic photo edits of the leader of the nation shirtless with guns and ammunition strapped to him? What do you mean you weren’t constantly worried about the world sinking into the ocean?

Looking back, I don’t know whether I should be thankful for my proclivity for politics at a young age or envious of the luxury of pre-social media adolescents to live in ignorant bliss. 

I don’t doubt that no matter the generation, there are some young whippersnappers that are more inclined to stay informed on the worldly and domestic affairs going on. However, the attitude I have gathered from talking to adults now is that today, more and more young people seem to be more and more up to date and concerned with these topics.

 According to a study conducted by the University of Kentucky, children were uncharacteristically engaged with the 2016 presidential election. While this may seem like a positive trend and lead you to have more faith that we will have driven, educated future voters, the results also show more troubling news. By virtue of most information being gathered from biased social media content aimed to garner views and attention, many of these impressionable minds are flooded with misinformation.

The thought of school kids being more concerned with having a stable country to grow up in than talking to a crush at a football game is a sobering thought, but one that may not be solely disheartening.

Because there is so much perspective at the fingertips of the youth, they are able to expedite the process of discovering different world views. As a result, younger adults can be more affluent and mature in political discussions. An article from the University of California, Merced revealed that students aged 12-17 could hold stimulating, calm, open minded conversations about mental health, poverty and other civil rights issues. I remember bearing witness to this myself when I was involved with Youth & Government in high school. Students from all across the state with different views would debate legislative bills and work together to make amendments in a way that shocked and encouraged the adult moderators. 

Certainly not all teenagers are picketing or delving into the complexities of our democracy, but there is no doubt that there is an augmented awareness of related issues among younger Americans. This attention boost appears to correlate with the 2016 election. That year marked a paradigm shift in the partisan nature of American politics, which could explain why so many younger citizens felt a need to engage with their constitutional environment.

The question of whether or not it is a positive change that more young adults interact with politics or that it is such a topic of conversation is up to you, but there is no denying that such an increased attentiveness to these matters can be taken as a sign of the times.

Our country’s operations are not running smoothly, and now even adolescents are starting to take notice of the disorder. If we’re lucky, these concerned members of our country will be the ones to get us back on a track where middle schoolers can stop worrying about entering a nuclear war and instead get to the bottom of what happened between the it-couple during English class.

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This article was edited by Abigail D’Angelo.