Is Voting For Young People

In America, one of the best ways we can voice our opinions and contribute to society is by casting a vote. Local, state and national elections allow citizens to participate in the shaping of our future. The youth of America play a big role in this country, as we are the future. However, the participation of young people in the voting process is absent in recent years. Martin P. Wattenberg discusses this topic in Is Voting For Young People, a compelling text which dives into the possible reasons young people feel less and less inclined to vote over the years.

In the first chapter, Wattenberg starts off by talking about the importance of newspapers and how we can benefit from the paper as a primary news source. He starts off by stating how the

In table 2.1 wattenberg shows the decline in ratings of network news. Wattenberg credits the decline in television network news to the growing trend of “soft news”. Which could be described as any news which lightly describes information or provides entertaining news. Our generation Wattenberg describes, has become increasingly less interested in politics and more intrigued with being entertained. “By 2004 senior citizens were four times more likely to watch network news every night than those under 30 in the past week.” Wattenberg uses this statistic to represent the current age gap in nightly news. Alternatively, it can be argued that young people are not interested in nightly news because of the numerous other options we have on television. Personally, i'd way rather watch a movie than watch what's going on in the world, where they discuss the same things over and over. I think young people would rather check Twitter or Facebook for news, where it can be easily read and understood. Furthermore, implementing a fine on the American people seems almost anti-democratic in the sense that it limits your choice to not

Wattenberg writes a compelling, factual book about the possible reasons the youth of America do not live out their civil duties. However, I think Wattenberg overanalyzes the small details and forgets to look at one common denominator. As a young person in America, it is extremely relevant to mention that most millennials have no faith in the American political system. We have seen the system fail our families, and our neighbors, and our friends. Over the years a bureaucracy has formed, and the American people are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the course that our country's political agenda is taking. Although I don’t believe being absent from the polls is the way to solve this, it is understandable why a young person in America could feel as though their vote doesn’t matter. All in all, I believe wattenberg misses the mark on the true and nearly obvious reason the youth is not voting: we've thrown in the towel on the American political