• Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
      73·
      10 days ago

      The average 16 year old doesn’t give a fuc I’d say even more then the average adult.

      • CanadaRocks@piefed.caOPEnglish
        32·
        10 days ago

        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.

    • streetfestival@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      10 days ago

      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!

    • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works
      12·
      10 days ago

      No worse than the adult population. […]

      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?