Youth discuss tone, social media in 2016 election season
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 24, 2016 10:01 AM
Madeline Clark remembers her government teacher in high school talking a lot about politics.
"It was more than just an interest -- it's what I wanted to do for my career," she said. "I see it as more than what I see on the news. I see it as we live our everyday lives."
Now 18, the recent graduate of Faith Christian Academy is a freshman at Campbell University, studying pre-law and political science.
She will vote for the first time in the upcoming presidential election.
But like many of her peers, the political climate is not making the choice so clear-cut.
"You see something on TV and then you see people on social medial that aren't really involved in politics and still giving their opinions," she said. "That's just one disheartening thing, when kids don't know what they're talking about."
Currently taking an American government class, she said the discussions among her classmates this fall have been most interesting.
"We all do agree that there's just so much wrong information out there, it's tweeted information," she said, adding that it has also been frustrating, "Where people our age don't want to get involved or they're not researching it as much and (are) looking at the entertainment aspect."
Leah Weaver gets her political news from anywhere but entertainment sources, she says, "because those are not accurate."
The recent graduate of Wayne School of Engineering is attending UNC-Wilmington. She turned 18 on Sept. 22, in time to vote this year for the first time.
She said she has watched some of the debates and studies the platforms of the candidates, but the overall campaign has been eye-opening.
"I feel like they're unprofessional," she said. "Like, if they want to be hired as presidents, they need to act more professional."
She isn't hearing enough about what matters, she says, "because they're too busy bickering."
"Instead of talking about the issues that need to be discussed, they're walking around talking about personalities. Not that personality doesn't matter, but it's hard to listen to the bickering," she said. "Honestly, I haven't seen anybody that's impressed me because they're all doing this childlike stuff. They're all acting like this is their first time running.
"Being president, you know, you have to work with all these different people -- they're not only dealing with people in the U.S. but around the world. You don't want to disrespect people because you can't control yourself. I think there's a kind of etiquette you need to have and if you don't have that, you don't need to be running for office."
Caroline Taylor, a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill, is studying psychology with plans of attending law school. The graduate of Charles B. Aycock High School said her time is spent juggling her studies and paying attention to the upcoming election.
"I'm a little bit of both, consumed with college, but I do look at it (the news) and see how important it is to vote," she said. "I need to be educated on who to vote for and what's the best option for me."
The 18-year-old plans to make the trip home to vote in her first presidential election.
"I do take it very seriously, and I'm excited to perform my civic duty," she said. "It's just very exciting to know that my vote counts in the future."
She is keenly aware of the role social media plays in disseminating information, she said.
"I'm not connected with Twitter so I don't see anything like that, but you can definitely see it on Instagram," she said.
Deciding who to cast her vote for has been a challenge, she said.
"Personally, both candidates have their pros and cons," she said. "Hillary is pro women's rights, which is good for me, but then the con is that she wasn't as honest with the e-mail scandal.
"Donald Trump, he's pro military. I feel like that's a good thing considering the recent events with ISIS. And then the immigrants, I feel like if the immigrants here are working hard and paying taxes, they should be treated equally as well."
Right now, Miss Taylor is watching it all play it out.
"I'm still going to see how everything works out and do more research and weigh the pros and cons and take the different things from each party and determine which is the truth and actually make my decision based on that," she said. "I think mainly in the past it hasn't really been a name-calling and bad-viewpoints election.
"This election is more like, 'I'm going to point out all the things they're doing wrong.' I feel like that's kind of been a downer in this election. Maybe if people would be more honest that would be a wonderful thing in the future."
Trae Woodard, 21, graduated this past spring from Wayne Community College, where he held his own political office, as Student Government Association president. He is attending Regent University in Virginia, studying for the ministry.
Growing up, he said, it was easier to follow his parents and vote the same way.
"Now all the choice is on me," he said. "I try not to base everything on my parents and what they say.
"I'm going to vote for the person who has the best morals and values, of course, and what will make the country better."
He will cast an absentee ballot in November, he said.
Which is not to say he has made his mind up yet.
"It's different this year. It's more entertainment," he said. "To be quite honest, I didn't watch a full Republican debate until Donald Trump came up here."
Rayquon Jones is equally as baffled by the whole circus-like atmosphere. A first-year student at Wayne Community College pursuing his associate in science degree, he said he hopes to become a dentist or something in the medical field.
The most he can say is that he intends to vote.
"I'm registered, and I said I was going to vote so I guess I'm going to," he said with a laugh. "I watch the election every time it comes around, but I don't know. It's never been this intense. It's pretty intense right now.
"I really don't know who I'd vote for or who I'm going to vote for because the options are, in my opinion, not good. I guess it could be worse, but it could be a lot better."
At 19, youth is still on his side, he says.
"Stuff that they do can affect me but not so much where it's going to completely stop everything or cancel something out. I would think neither of them are going to get rid of taxes," he said. "I'm just rolling with the election."
The whole climate of politicians pitted against each other has been interesting, to say the least, Jones said.
"It's been a pretty intense election," he said. "This is probably the most crap-talking election I have ever seen.
"They just bash each other. At least Trump does. Hillary kind of takes it."
Kelly Best, at 24, has already voted once, in the 2012 election.
"It's interesting because I grew up in a time when there was no social media and now social media is everything and the way candidates will be running," she said.
A graduate of Rosewood High School and Campbell University, she now teaches science at Rosewood Middle School.
She can still recall former President Bill Clinton being asked on MTV, "boxers or briefs?" and says President Obama has done a lot to open up the celebrity aspect as well -- "to have a president who tweets," she said.
But that focus on celebrity and image is not the foundation on which to base a vote for president, she said.
"It's interesting to see like what is sort of promoted toward young people is the president's image," she said. "As a young person, I feel like I'm sort of shortchanged on what their actual policies are and how they're going to be as a leader because they're shown in this shallow is-their-image sort of way.
"In school, we were taught about policy and what it means. Unless you go in and search out how they are for issues, you're not going to find it."
Twitter and social media are not reliable sources for mass consumption, she said.
As such, it's a "very tough decision" as the race comes down to two candidates, she said.
"I don't completely agree with what I have heard from either over time, including the independents," she said. "It's a disservice to the American people who have the privilege to vote, who haven't been told exactly what they're voting for.
"I don't honestly know who I'm voting for. I'm still doing research."
While social media and media in general creates more "accessibility" to the presidential office, Miss Best said the general public is still largely out of the loop because the real issues aren't the focus.
"If you had told me 10 years ago the presidential election would have included Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, I would not have believed it," she said. "No one ever expected a businessman and no one ever expected a woman, so that part is very admirable about the election.
"But at the same time it's strange and refreshing."