Earlier today Newsnight hosted a Google Hangout which featured on the YouTube’s own UK election spotlight page
The conversation focused on youth apathy and disengagement in the voting process. Why vote, and does voting matter? In the group was Gary Turk, a 28 year old filmmaker who rose to fame last year with the viral video "Look Up" with over 50 million views, encouraging people to move beyond the insular world of life on their mobile phones. He recently also produced another video encouraging people to vote in this election.
So what were the main factors disengaging the youth vote? All participants cited non representation in the political process – from media covering topics pandering to politicians and politicians in turn pandering to an older electorate more likely to vote. Without appropriate youth representation, young people were less likely to feel engaged and thus likely to vote. Similarly, Turk suggested that voting also needed to evolve to meet today’s digital reality, namely online voting.
Whilst politicians may be perceived as “just posh people in suits,” celebrities like Russell Brand appealed to the youth vote because as Turk suggests, even though people are more educated, “they’re also more distracted, that’s why they’re more interested in hearing from celebrities..they’ll listen to people because they have a reason to believe in it (the issues) themselves.”
As for predictions, there was a slight consensus towards Ed Miliband, but more importantly, that if all youth did vote, it would be enough to cause a swing vote.