Millennials on the street: Rochester
Published October 18, 2008 @ 12:40PM PT
With all of the concentration on and hype poured into the role of modern social networks in Millennial civic education, it's easy to overlook the impact of some relatively old-school and obvious avenues of information. I was reminded of this yesterday after talking with two teenagers on the street in Rochester, New York.
While walking off the Garbage Plate and trying to find a cup of coffee, we passed an Obama campaign office and stopped inside in hopes of finding some young volunteers. To our dismay, all of the volunteers and phone-bankers were at least 30 or older. One of the office managers directed us across the street to a bus stop where a bunch of young people were milling around, waiting for the bus, and we were able to briefly touch base with two young people - a young man, aged 15 and a young woman, aged 17.
They explained that the extent of their social networking interactions are carried out on MySpace over Facebook and that they admittedly don't use the network to engage politically; the majority of their activity there is social. I was surprised, though, to find that the keep up to date with news and politics via a somewhat standard, static website called Rochester For Kids.
The young man explained, "I play football and [the site]'s got a bunch of pictures from our team on it so while I am there, I check out everything else on the site as well." In addition to posting information and links about local football, Rochester for Kids posts educational and somewhat topical links.
Do they get their news from the newspaper or on television? Do they follow the election?
"I'm not old enough to vote," explained the young woman. "I watch the debates and stuff, but not much else."
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Author
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Alex is a freelance journalist, activist, and online community management consultant based in Boston and Portland, Maine. He currently serves as executive editor of MakeSomethingHappen.net, where he writes about online organizing and the power of collective action.
