this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
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I understand the logic, that Parliament is making decisions that is going to affect the future lives of our youth, but I would worry about young people who have grown up devouring a steady diet of TikTok, youtube and Instagram making voting decisions before they've really understood how much the messages they ingest have been massaged, curated and shaped in order to manipulate them. There's far too much rage baiting, shilling and astroturfing on socials but the hard fact is that the really effective stuff is getting harder to discern and AI and algorithms are making it harder and harder to figure out what's real and what's not.
No worse than the adult population. Why do they get singled out?
Fair question. Whether or not some age groups are more susceptible to propaganda is an empirical question. If you know of data, please share.
Critical thinking keeps developing into the early 20s, so not have the full supply of that is a potential knock against younger voters.
Something I've seen from my more conservatively-oriented family members is that significant financial and domestic difficulties help them see the falsehoods in right-wing propaganda. When things are better, they might be more amenable to anti-immigrant talk (and the like) to prop up their ego. But when they're truly struggling (with affordability issues) they seem to see the irrelevance between their real issues and the parties the Right tries to scapegoat (e.g., immigrants; not billionaires, neoliberalism, etc.). If this theory holds, then not facing affordability issues due to living with parents could be another knock against young voters if it makes them more susceptible to right-wing propaganda.
Those are just speculations. I'd love to see some data!
I'd like to compare non voters and disenfranchised voters vs young people. I've worked with young people a lot over the years. I don't think many give them enough credit in my experience. Teaching youth I have found that when given the proper information and having discussions openly about civics, history, the economy, sex, education, literature or any other "adult subject" these "kids" often make much more informed decisions than adults.
I don't think we should be enforcing voting restrictions on this age group. That's my personal opinion but I also would like numbers. Yet, If my kid can get a job and pay taxes, Drive, take care of their own healthcare and mental health care (age of consent for mental healthcare in my province is 12. No parents necessary in fact they're even asked not to attend) then why not voting. We are already giving them all the power to earn, spend, command a death machine, make choices about whether to take prescribed medications and then use them properly. That means they make many individual choices that affect society at large, themselves, their employers etc. daily.
I personally feel that should give them a say in how those things occur. They should have input into laws and restrictions that affect them. Minimum wage. Driving laws. Work permissions. Trials as adults or youth. So many things. They have been proven to be responsible enough not to kill people after all. If they break the law and that crime is deemed serious enough they are tried as adults. Why not be welcome to assist in making the very decisions that will affect a very important time in their lives.
Like I've said previously, I would also like to see some data. Not just knee jerk reactions. I'd like to think by giving voting rights to younger people we would also re-engage them in actual political discourse. When I was that age ( late 80's/early 90's) I was extremely politically engaged. Probably more than I am now. But we had open discourse and civics class. Our parents taught us not about political parties but voting in general.
But I would also like to see parents actually parent again which would solve many of the arguments against younger people voting. Those two things seem far away right now.
The average 16 year old doesn't give a fuc I'd say even more then the average adult.
I'd suggest that voter turnout shows a lack of knowledge or desire across many age groups and the disenfranchised. It would be interesting to compare the two.
This. And I used to teach that age group. They seemed to be very invested in gaming, the opposite sex, celebrities, what their friends were doing, social media and music. Not sure those are the people who give two seconds thought to politics and there were a few who were socially aware and active on some key issues, but in general, nope, they're far too distracted to care enough to even vote.
It takes time and these days, it takes some training to learn discernment in media messaging. Those skills come over time.
Sounds a lot like the entire generation of 20 somethings in my family and their friends.
At what age would you say that a child (ie someone that is not an adult) brain is equal, in terms of rationality (assuming that is a sufficient metric to gauge one's fitness for voting in an election), to that of an adult brain? Or are you saying that a child brain of any age is equal to an adult brain?
The discussion is about the article which clearly states the metrics. Even if you didn't read the article it's also in the title.
At 16 I certainly would have voted like my parents because they had made me think the same way they did and any other way was wrong.
In hindsight, every choice they made was the wrong choice that brought in further conservative politics, austerity and the destruction of our social safety net.