Sunday, October 19, 2008

research over the weekend

so this weekend I did a fair amount of browsing on the internet about the campaign, millennials, the campaign and millennials, etc. Many of the sites i stumbled upon i found really interesting, especially the ones that discussed "dealing with millennials" and some were just absolutely amusing, especially some blogs. WHat really sticks out in my mind is the high number of sites discussing "how to manage millennials" and how certain companies are changing their policies in order to better suit us "millennials"...as in instead of us adapting to them, they are adapting to us. It was fun to read about my fellow "millennials" and the characteristics unique to my generation. After a while the websites began to get repetitive except different websites offered different views about "millennials" and politics. Some argued we weren't involved enough, yet others went on and on about the increase of millennial participation in politics, mainly with the current election. I agree with the latter. This made me think of Rebooting America. Technology has made it easier for us to get our hands in politics and it has enabled us to reach one another. I found this excerpt (below) interesting...it's from an online student journal, I'm not saying I agree with her, but I would be curious to hear what you all think about what she is saying... How much do you agree with her? Do you even agree with her? How much of a role does technology play in this election? Is this beneficial?

"Since young people are traditionally seen as apathetic, McCain didn’t bother with the youth constituency. Obama did.

He effectively brought the Millennials into the political process using social-networking sites like Facebook. He inspired new voters by convincing them that their grassroots support is essential to change, and he did most of it on the Internet.

The number of young voters in the 2008 presidential election has tripled compared to the 2004 elections. In some states it actually quadrupled, and Obama got to them first."



-Adrienne

2 comments:

BG said...

The millenial participation has indeed sky rocketed at this time. No question that Obama has successfully reached out to this generation to drum up more support. With all this support there is one down fall to consider. If Obama is elected to office and does not live up to the standards that he has preached, then where will all the support go? Will our generation and others simply fall off the face of the Earth when it comes to politics? Something to consider.

Becky, Sam, Merel, James, Adrienne, Asa said...

i completely agree. THe points you raised make me think back to Marie Wilson's piece, The Power of Inclusion (in Rebooting). She opens her section with the quote:

"True political participation is only achieved when a person’s voice counts as much as his or her vote.”

-Adrienne