My generation of students is not as well informed about politics as they need to be. Although we grew up with parents who guided us with how to think politically, we are not as well informed as we should be. No matter what your standpoint is with the government, right, left, center, you need to have reasons to back up your standpoint.
Yes, we learn some things in school and the real world when we see riots and polls online. However, what we see is mostly biased. We don't understand the history of our country from the moral standpoint. We don't have sufficient knowledge about the U.S.'s past to be able to claim what works in our country. Yes, we might have learned the presidents and what political party they stood with in the past. However, we have not been informed enough to the point where we have been given enough knowledge to vote in this election.
This is what makes me nervous about my peers voting in the election. I know that every voice matters and everyone may have reasons to back up their vote, however; this could be a right or wrong thing. There are a lot of lies that go on through the media, and this could potentially cause harm to the way people mediate their thoughts on the presidential candidates. Especially in this particular election of 2016, there are so many media portrayed lies, so you have to make sure that you vote on the candidate by their standpoints, not their characteristics. The problem with this is, many people my age do not do their research about the critical political perspectives, and instead they watch videos that are posted on Facebook or Twitter. The problem with this is that people get so caught up in what they see on websites that they forget what is important, which is the politics.
This is such a scary thing to be scared about considering that one of these candidates will soon have the country's destiny in their hands. This is an important election, and when I read posts that people share and don't have enough reasons to argue about it, I question their reason for sharing anything at all, unless it's a reaction.
That's another thing I worry about with our generation, that politics have been a topic of discussion and have turned into more of a dramatic debate over anything. This is unacceptable. This is going to be our next president, and although the press is going always to find a way to make things as dramatic as possible, we have to find a way to stand by our choices of what President makes the right choices rather than who is most favorited in the media. The media isn't a great source of information, so we need to stop adapting to it, and need to learn the history of what works and what doesn't.
If I could give my generation any advice when they vote, it would be to stop listening to what people have to say and get informed about what has and what has not worked in the government in history. Oh, and make sure you vote, too. But only if you can back it up.
