WHO WOULD’VE GUESSED TIKTOK’S POLITICAL POWER
As we sense democracy being torn down in the US, a multi-media platform is bringing on individual thought among the next generation of voters
EVEN as Donald Trump does all he can to destroy American democracy, aided by some interfering Aussies, the kids are making me feel all right.
With Trump falsely flagging election fraud in a bid to boost his failing campaign, it’s hard not to lose hope for the future of America and for democracy in general.
It is hard to believe a sitting president of the United States and a mob of armed supporters are actually chanting “stop the vote’’.
It is incredible and incredibly disturbing.
The land of the free is trying to silence its own citizens. And as the fire of hate burns across the country, you’d better believe that China and Russia are being warmed by that glow. They are loving every minute of chaos in the wild west.
Even our own former treasurer and ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, has sold out our dearest institution of democracy, daring to state that Trump has “plenty of good reason’’ to make his fraudulent claims. Hockey’s assertion is based on the fact that Democrat candidate Joe Biden secured a “hard to believe’’ 93 per cent of the vote in Washington DC.
Never mind that is completely consistent with results over the past 12 years
And with Trump’s supporters avidly consuming every conspiracy circulating on social media, warnings of misinformation notwithstanding, the truth is like a red panda – endangered. But there is hope.
And I never thought I’d say this, but I found it on TikTok.
Of all the horrific attacks on democracy we have witnessed this week, I have been heartened watching my children and their friends begin their journey to becoming politically active adults.
For every moment of Trump fantasising about voter fraud, I have an email from my daughter – sent from her school computer – assuring me of a Democrat win … complete with screenshots of voter maps.
For every incident of Trump supporters yelling at poll counters in Michigan to “stop the count’’ while simultaneously screaming at Arizona processing centres to “count the vote’’, I have a text from my son that “Biden has it in the bag, no doubt’’.
Alas, I also have a text from him which reads: “If Biden wins can u get me a play station 5?”
That child truly knows the way to my heart.
As children of a dualnational and dual-nationals themselves, my kids have real reason to be invested in American politics.
But it’s not just them. Other parents have told me that Biden vs Trump has been the topic at their own dinner tables and teachers tell me they have to shut down the election talk to get back to lessons. It’s an obsession.
Yet this political interest is pointed inwards as well, where the state election raised far more questions in our household than usual.
Children have always been the political products of their parents, but now they are taking those adopted adult arguments online – where they are learning far more than their guardians are prepared to teach them.
And TikTok is proving to be the lifeline that the future of democracy needs.
In its comprehensive election coverage, The New York Times included analysis of this political teen trend.
“TikTok has become the default platform for millions of teenagers who want to educate themselves on issues, express their political ideologies and organise to take action,” wrote journalist Taylor Lorenz.
“It has given rise to a new
class of political pundits, many of whom users turned to on Tuesday to make sense of the night’s news and uncertainty.
“Political TikTokers communicate in large group chats, trading information and deciding when to make their own calls on certain states.”
Rather than simply regurgitate what their parents think, these kids are learning to think for themselves.
Indeed, 17-year-old high school student Ashleigh Hunniford told the Times exactly that.
“I personally think the mass information that you’re
seeing online is so much more helpful, because I’m getting information by the second, and I’m getting everyone else’s opinion to form my own. Watching a news station seems like getting someone else’s opinion instead of forming your own.”
I know my own children have quoted teens on TikTok as their personal source of why Biden will win. And as much as I love to hear that, I hate to tell them that most of these kids can’t vote.
But one day very soon, they will.
And from what they are
posting online, they are ready.
With America so far from united, and so often far too removed from the facts, it is encouraging to see this young generation taking the future into their own hands, finding their own information, forming their own opinions and preparing for their own political action.
While the thought of either of my children driving a car fills me with terror, the thought of them steering our world into the future simply fills me with hope.
Thanks to the kids, democracy is all right.