Scandals, Blunders, & Presidential Waves

Ever since social media played a significant role in Obama’s 2008 victory, there’s been a lot of talk about Politics and the Internet. Personally, I’m only interested in American politics because it’s so much fun. Scandals, blunders, and presidential waves.

They did the same thing too, here in Singapore. During the last general election in 2011, politicians and parties had Facebook pages and Twitter accounts set up. However, the Internet can be a hostile place as well, as evident in the Tin Pei Ling saga.

Anyway, part of the reason they began to use social media was to reach out to the younger demographic of the population and garner support from there. If people aren't gonna look for politics, then politics are gonna look for them.

But did it work? It definitely helped Obama, but the same can’t be said in Singapore.

Political apathy amongst youth has been a point of contention for a long while now. Why is this so? Or more importantly, why does this matter? Politics is something that affects all of us in every way, so people fear that if the younger generation does not care about government, then we relinquish control of our own lives.

But one thing I’d like to point out is this – does political apathy not exist in the older generation? I’m sure that there are people who do not care for politics in all age groups, and there are young people who are concerned about politics as well.

One reason politics doesn't bother most of us is that we’re quite content with things the way they are now. Why fix what isn't broken? We are in an enlightened age, and if there’s anything we’re not satisfied with, rest assured we will not keep quiet.