Apathetic young towards politics? Or maybe not.

Are youth really as apathetic as they have been so often cited towards politics? I think not.

For one, in the United States 2004 elections, "Young people turned out in greater numbers than they ever have before. In fact, according to the Center for Information and Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE), youth voting surged by 11 percentage points and 47 percent of 18- to 24-year-old citizens voted. This means young people raised turnout twice more than any other age group."

But that is just one set of numbers that we can cite. There is still a lot more to be done in terms of such visible and tangible methods of studying the attitudes that the young have towards politics.

Before we start anything, let me ask you one question. What is political involvement to a youth these days?

Back in our grandparents' generation, I have seen many history videos back in secondary school history lessons, and heard many stories of them going to a rally or a protest, or join a union. However, today's youth has a whole new definition, according to this survey; "22 percent have worn a wristband, 36 percent have signed an online petition, and 30 percent have written an email or letter advocating a position. Eighteen percent have contributed to a political blog. i.e., 918,000 young people are "political bloggers," which is fascinating since the blogs are a product of only the past few years." With these statistics, is it not visible how the youth are proactive in their methods of joining their form of a rally or protest? In fact, it has been found that college students are on top of national politics, where "68 percent follow the news closely, with 79 percent reporting they get their news from national TV networks, and 34 percent saying they turn to blogs."

Their aim is to build up power for their organisations and movements against the state, irrespective of which pro-rich party happens to control the state. Young people will vote as they see fit, or in some cases choose some form of bottom-up grass-roots mobilisation over party politics.

One thing is clear.

We are not apathetic. We are a generation of politically charged, educated, skeptical, involved and civically engaged youth

Information from:
1) http://www.wiretapmag.org/stories/30495/
2) http://www.jakeg.co.uk/essays/youth_politics.htm
3) http://antieviction.org.za/2009/03/12/academia-apathetic-youth-a-thing-of-the-past/