teodoroserroni

[teodoroserroni]

The Ascension of Social Media is Making More Teenagers Interested in Politics & Economy, Mainly on the Liberal Right Wing

It is not new that social media helps people, mainly teenagers, do many things, like homework, reading or gaming, but many of them are also getting more interested in politics because of it. Social media is also helping many young people to know more about politics and economy in Brazil and the whole world.

“Youth culture” is a word used to describe the “teenager culture”, what do they like,, how they fall in love, their relation with drugs and, of course, their political vision. In our grandparents' time, the political debate was very dangerous because of the Military Dictatorship in Brazil. The fact that no internet had they made the news spread more biased by the government, and slowly. Also, they were more religious, which helps in the conservative social view that many of our grandparents have about society and thinking. Besides, in the 70s’ the hippie counterculture movement against the Vietnam War and the ascension of Nixon’s neoliberalism, started a process of less prejudice, mainly in LGBT+ rights, and abusive use of drugs like LSD and cannabis. A “social-liberal” view against the old conservatives.

Politics, and when I say politics I am including economy in it, is a crucial theme to understand because politics rule the world. Every government type, be it socialism, liberalism, fascism, or another one, is involved with politics. Politics is one of the most important things in life, if not the most important, to know. As said by Plato: “The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men”. Speaking for myself, I like politics very much, and every day I catch myself watching videos and reading articles about politics and economy on social media, and I am always discussing it with my family and friends.

The majority of our parents and grandparents' generation is full of conservatives. It’s uncommon to see a progressist old man. Our generation, mainly millennials, Gen X and Gen Z, is less conservative because we live more with LGBTs, and left and right-wing friends every day. Today the world has a more diverse set of people in our daily lives of different opinions, sexual orientations, and other things because people today feel more comfortable than in the past, like our grandpa's time, to express themselves. In my personal experience, the major part of Gen Z is left wing and progressist, with left-wing being the ones who believe in a biggest State, and progressists the ones who deserve a free world to minorities and defense of taboos. After all, right-wing liberalism is increasing faster because of the better use of social media by the right-wing. An example of the influence of politicians in social media on teenagers is the "Movimento Brasil Livre" (MBL), one of the biggest non-party political groups, born in July 2023. Mainly in the 2022 elections, MBL has got thousands of new members, most of them teenagers and young adults angry with Brazil's situation, who started interviewing and questioning people in the streets and in demonstrations and other politicians. MBL and other movements act mainly in social media like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Moreover, the majority of new members of MBL ideals knew about it on the internet and act on it. Because of that, the group is probably the biggest voice of politics and economy that is not a party on the Brazilian internet, where they most act.

This theme is one of, if not the most relevant to our generation because it will define our future, our children's future, and our grandchildren's future. Our generation is by far the most political of recent times. We see more and more young people talking about it on the internet, studying and reading about it. So, it is clear that we are going to make our future. After all, if you understand politics, history, economics, and things like that you can be a more intellectual and cult person. In that theme, we can see the strong action of social media to make our teenagers more interested and talkative about politics.

We can now search how and why the past generations talked about politics and economics in their time. As I said before, in the past times, mainly in the Military Dictatorship, it was not common to talk about politics more freely like nowadays, the censorship rule of the government was strong enough to put in jail the ones that were expressing themselves against the government. Many families were spied on by the military, and even a encounter of six or seven people was a crime. On the other hand, in the ending years of the dictatorship, talk about the known "Diretas Já!" was common, because one government cannot stop millions of people in a demonstration. Many figures, mainly artists, talked about politics and dissatisfaction with the dictatorship through their songs and poems, so the censorship could not catch them.

Brazil's past incidents post-dictatorship were able to create a virtual and real dissatisfaction mainly among young people. That happened after the end of the dictatorship and during the beginning of the re-democratization, the popular dissatisfaction with the economy was big, mainly in Fernando Collor de Mello's government. At that time many young people and students came together to demonstrate in the streets, the known "Movimento Caras Pintadas". More and more, less satisfaction had the people because of Brazil's situation. Then, in June 2013, with the "June Journeys", to Dilma's impeachment in 2016, people started to show this feeling, with thousands of demonstrations, some very violent, with many "black blocks" starting to vandalize the streets. The notice that Brazil would be the host of the next football World Cup and the corruption cases involving the "Partido dos Trabalhadores" (PT), and the quality in the country, made many young people protest aggressively. In the last few years we lived through difficult times when the tolerance of the population was over, and until now the people have the same dissatisfaction because nothing changed. And it was at that time that the non-partidary political groups, like MBL or "Movimento Passe Livre" (MPL), started to show their faces, born from the popular dissatisfaction with everything and everyone in politics.

With these informations, we can investigate why do these social media "post-2016" non-partidary groups attract so much of the young people. That happens mainly because of the popular dissatisfaction in June Journeys since now, these groups have been formed by young people to young people, to young people who will be future political figures and need to change something. These groups have been formed by young people who are more progressist than the older generations, to young people to activate the burning spirit of change and political debate. For example, MBL always uses a "young" and "cool" way of expression, making references to memes, video games, and other things teenagers like because they get more attracted to them, and they are claiming for a change to their future. The political parties are filled today with the "old politic": hundreds of old suited men talking about irrational themes. It is obvious that teenagers get more easily attracted to a group of young people, wearing normal clothes and with a teen communication, than to old politicians, even more with the same feeling of dissatisfaction that the old politicians don't care, they just want the power to themselves, and not have to agree people with this, they need new things.