I'll never forget the day I ran into my high school counselor at the meeting for election workers five years ago.
"Look at all the gray heads in here," he said.
It was true. Mr. Archer and I were the only non-elderly workers in the entire room, even though it was a paying job. And sadly, the demographic of people who showed up to vote that year looked pretty similar – nearly every person I handed a ballot to looked to be over 60 years old.
The "gray heads" phenomenon was not limited to my hometown - youth apathy has been a problem for years. Ever since the early 90's, campaigns like Rock the Vote and Vote or Die thought the solution was to make voting cool again by using celebrity sound bytes. P. Diddy's Vote or Die even got endorsements from stars like 50 Cent and Paris Hilton (who, it turns out, didn't even show up to vote).
YouTube, Facebook and Myspace have led the way in generating youth interest in the political process, and Rock the Vote has jumped on the bandwagon. Its Web site proudly displays a quote from Rolling Stone magazine that says, "Most impressive: As many people under thirty showed up as senior citizens. That's f*#%ing nuts is what that is. That's the Rock the Vote political wet dream that never ever comes true... actually coming true."
image: http://eipl.suffolk.lib.ny.us/teencorner/images/RTV-BL-LG.gif
Well, these trendy get-out-the-vote campaigns underestimated us. It turns out the formula that MTV used to boost their ratings didn't end up boosting youth turnout in elections as much as they hoped - maybe because we're smart enough to know not to take political advice from multi-millionaires.
Sure, young people like watching celebrity news. But they also like feeling connected, and that's why Facebook and YouTube are so popular today. For the first time, there is a way to find what we want, when we want it, and to voice our opinions in an open dialogue.
Facebook and YouTube maximize our options, showing anything from Obama girl to issue oriented debates. We can now watch speeches and debates, read news feeds, view live polls, contribute money to candidates online, interact with reporters, discuss issues and post videos anywhere, anytime. The political process has never been more within our reach. Politicians and the media have recognized the power of young voters, and the results have been impressive.
Recently I had a dream that I went back to my hometown's polling booth and all of the "gray heads" took their wigs off. Maybe this year, in some twisted way, that dream might just come true.
Here's hoping.
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