People make assumptions when it comes to teenagers and their relationship with politics. Society says things like “teenagers don’t know anything about politics” and “Teenagers don’t care about politics.” In reality, many high-school-aged people do have their own opinions about the political issues in America and beyond. Easy access to Internet allows them to see and understand both side of common political arguments. It then allows them to align with one of the common stances today: democratic, republican, and independent. But is that a good thing? Should teenagers be as political as they are starting to become?
The Pros and Cons of Teen in Politics
Despite there being many political teenagers around today, there’s still those who disagree with their involvement. A lot of children have heard “You shouldn’t be thinking about things like that” when asked a question. People say that teenagers are too young, and that they should focus on their youth instead of politics. The lives of people after eighteen are almost always more stressful than those still in high school. Teenagers’ lack of education and the fact that they don’t make the best decisions are two other reasons for teenagers to stay out of politics.
However, the pros outweigh the cons in this situation. Today’s teenagers live in a day and age where they have access to a wonderful thing: the Internet. If utilized properly, then it could help form the younger generation’s opinions. Not sure if you’re a democrat? Not sure if you’re a conservative? If you Google either of those words, pages of information will come up to educate you. Along with it will come commentary relating to both sides. Young adolescents can then decide for themselves what side to support, based on what they’ve seen. Teenagers having opinions that differ drastically from their parents’ should be well-known.
An Overwhelming Amount of Political Teens
Near the beginning of December, I posted a survey on my Instagram story. There were three different questions, divided into three different stories. The average accumulation of views on these three separate stories was about 218 per story. 68% of people voted that they were political. Of those, 82 were democratic, 67 were independent, and 16 were conservative. 33 were 13 and younger, while 151 were 14 and over. This proves that, even though a vast amount of people believe that many teenagers aren’t political, that there is indeed a great amount of those in their teenage years who are political.
In conclusion, there you can’t stop teenagers from being political. Everything that teenagers are curious about is at their fingertips, and whether adults like it or not, they’ll still form some sort of political opinion. But this doesn’t mean that they should be recklessly political. There’s many times where full-grown adults have acted irresponsibly because of how firmly they held their beliefs. This applies to teenagers who are interested in politics as well. They should still listen to both sides, as they are growing and maturing, and opinions might shift and vary from year to year. Teenagers should be political since they are the future generation who will be voting next, and who will be the most affected by the government’s decision.
