Most people think that Tik Tok is someplace teens go to distract themselves from ‘real’ news, as a place to zone out and exist in the fantasy of dancing celebrities and comedic memes. Over the summer though, it wasn’t a new song that went viral, it was vice president Kamala Harris’s echoing voice asking: “Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”
Recently, Kamala Harris’s official campaign Tik Tok and Instagram accounts under the username “KamalaHQ”, have gone viral, collecting millions of likes and followers, as they take advantage of trending sounds and artists, most notably Charlie XCX. Former president Donald Trump has also attempted to compete for youth support, attending college football games, visiting fraternity houses, attending UFC matches, and appearing with popular streamers and internet personalities, the Nelk boys.
Liberty students are noticing this rise in political marketing directed towards youth. In a survey of Liberty students, 64% of respondents selected that they were highly interested in politics, ranking their interest as either a four- or five- out of five. In addition to this, 44% said that they followed Kamala HQ.
Teachers, like AP Government teacher Amy Cooke, are noticing as well.
“This year’s senior class is better than I’ve had in at least the last five years, as far as being aware of, paying attention too, and seeming to care about, current events,” Cooke said.
As with many arguments about social media, the idea of major political campaigns using humorous trends and 30-second-clips as the main informant of youth voters, brings up concern about the validity and completeness of information being delivered.
“Social media plays upon emotion, not logos, appeal, which is concerning because that leads to uniformed, or worse, inaccurately informed, voters,” United States History teacher Stephen Darnell said.
Despite this concern though, most students and teachers see youth involvement and empowerment as having a net-positive effect.
“The majority of teens get their news from tiktok or instagram, so for campaigning, using social media is a smart strategy,” senior Alex Munson said.
The power of social media is remarkable, and increasing political involvement among youth is one way that this power can be used for something positive.
“2020 had the highest turnout of 18-24 year olds than we’ve had in a while, and social media is definitely playing a role. It allows Taylor Swift to post one thing and have 372,000 people register to vote that moment,” Cooke said.
Our democracy is built on the involvement of citizens, and in order for our government to best represent its people, young adults need to be involved as well. Teens need to be empowered to care about their future, and if that empowerment is coming from celebrity endorsements and Tik Tok trends, then those trends and endorsements are a good thing.
