Internet x Politics x Youths

Are youths really apathetic towards the politics? Do we really stay out of this arena most of the time? Well, some may argue that youths these days still remain unconcern, especially when we do not talk about it half the time like what the elderly do. While others have noticed a change in young people these days, as they show greater concern towards the effects and changes from what the government has done. This is particularly interesting, as I would agree that the digital era has definitely given us the easy way out to learn and acquire any and every knowledge that we want to learn. At least to me, Facebook seems like the most straight and fast forward way to learn about politics. I admit I was someone who rejected conversing about politics and the government in the past. But because of what people share on Facebook, it piques my interest in this topic. Generally, my friends share about everything on Facebook, and because of what they share, I can get first-hand knowledge on what's happening around us. I guess this serves the same for people around my age or those even younger. We do not go to information, instead these information come to us. And that is why I think that digital media and the Internet can transform the way in how we view politics.

There is a shift in dynamics associated with participatory politics in a specifically digital age, the opportunities and challenges that those dynamics present for youth civic engagement, and the broader questions they open up about high quality sociopolitical relationships. Consider a few examples:

Watching a televised presidential debate in one’s living room by oneself is not an instance of participatory politics. Watching that same debate and then writing a letter to the editor or Tweeting about it is. Similarly, reading a newspaper story, whether online or in print, is not an act of participatory politics. However, when a reader forwards a link to the article to her friends or posts a comment online reacting to the story, expressing her own opinion or perhaps critiquing the journalism itself, she is engaging in participatory politics. That is, while seeking out political information is important, we do not regard consumption of information as a form of participation. It is when one circulates political information or shares one’s perspectives on it that the activity becomes participatory. In each of these examples, participants demonstrate the highly social, interactive nature of participatory politics and exhibit a desire and ability to add their voices to or even to influence the flow of information rather than simply following an agenda set out by elites.

With the resources of “participatory politics” increasingly available, we see growing opportunities for
youth--and for civic actors broadly-- to exert agency in the public sphere, both as individuals and within communities of practice. By circulating content, they can influence what others are exposed to. When people are especially interested, outraged, or committed, they can comment on broadcast content, write and distribute statements, or remix content to make a point. Individuals and groups can also enter into dialogues with each other and with leaders in an effort to “talk back” and play a role in shaping agendas. Drawing on social and often digital networks, youth, as individuals or as collaborative communities, can also expand their access to audiences and opportunities for mobilization with less dependence on elite-driven institutions such as political parties or major interest groups and organizations. Indeed, we see examples of new media enabling the mobilization of cultural groups for political purposes and the mobilization of diffuse friendship networks for targeted political action. That said, participatory politics can, of course, introduce new hierarchies and leverage other types of elite-driven institutions (for example, venture capital-backed companies), and so dynamics of exclusion as well as expansion are key to understanding emerging modes of citizen engagement.

Risks of the New Media

First, there is a risk relating to the practice of investigation. As noted above, the affordances of digital
media can greatly expand access to perspectives and information, as well as options for investigation, but reduced reliance on elite and institutional gate-keepers introduces challenges associated with bias and credibility, including the insufficient vetting of misinformation and the creation of “echo chambers” or “filter bubbles,” in which people choose to attend to only like-minded perspectives.

Second, there are risks relating to dialogue and feedback, circulation, and production. For example, the need for short powerful, spreadable messages may encourage simplification of complex and nuanced issues. It is also important to consider how participatory politics may or may not adequately facilitate negotiation and deliberation. One area of concern is that loosely organized groups that avoid the negativity of electoral politics may not provide sufficient incentive for youth to negotiate differences of opinion that inevitably emerge when taking action that has impact on others. The ways in which new media enable access to participatory politics—the possibility of acting with anonymity, ease of entry and exit with loosely formed groups— may also make the consequences of offending others feel less important or may make withdrawal from the conversations when small differences emerge seem like the best option.

Third, there is a risk related to mobilization itself, namely that, in the context of an increased reliance on expressive politics, political actors will cease to develop full understandings of the differences between voice and influence, perhaps contenting themselves with expression itself when they might also have achieved influence if they had focused on more traditional modes of political involvement. We do not want to undervalue the significance of voice itself—a point Shelby makes in this volume— especially for youth who are in the process of developing their political identities. But it is important to cultivate conceptualizations of participatory politics that make the trajectory from voice to influence explicit, accessible, and operationalizable.

Let's end off this discussion with a video...