By: Destiny Burnett & Jadyn McQuillar
January 21, 2025The latest presidential election has increased interest in political matters, yet it has also induced stress among students, particularly those who were ineligible to vote.
TikTok has been a platform that has been informing and spreading awareness on politics about each of the presidential candidates educating people on what they stand for, changing people’s perspective on topics, and growing interest in politics itself. All of these reasons have been emerging curiosity to younger minds, like Suhayla Roache, an 11th grade Carver student, who has been stressed with the recent election feeling restricted because she can’t do anything related to politics.
“I feel as though this is the most important election, and I feel my voice should have been heard. Even though I’m 16 and I definitely cannot vote, I wish I could. The way that the election had went, it really spoke volumes to me, and I really wish I could have done something” Roache said.
Although TikTok has been informing people on politics, it has been known to many researchers of Global Witness that TikTok has spread false information about the recent election. The article states that “TikTok did the worst. It approved 50% of ads containing false information about the election. This despite its policy explicitly banning all political ads.” This conclusion was made after the organization tested the app to see if they would allow false information pertaining to the election. Justin Beckett, an 11th grade Carver student, is aware of the misinformation on TikTok that has been spread about the election through social media platforms.
Suhayla Roache, watching Kamala Harris on TikTok
“I feel as though you know some people on TikTok, they give up true information, some people also give out false information, and it gives people an idea that might not be true, so it's good and bad. You just have to be careful of who you’re watching and check your sources.”
Even though Tiktok has brought true and false information regarding the recent election it has brought more revenue to politics. Many companies can agree that “The relationship between social media and politics is not new, but the rise of platforms like TikTok, X, and Instagram has magnified their impact." TikTok became a platform that let people use their freedom of speech and give their opinions and perspective on what they understood about the election. People that were expressing their opinions attracted many more viewers to express their opinions and educate others about the candidates, the election process, and many more things.
“I think social media was a big part in politics. And like I said, I felt as though it was a popularity contest. I saw all these ads like every other video. It was an ad about something to do with politics. So I feel like social media brought more light to politics than usual” Roache said.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both shared their plans for the future. Some people agreed with the plans while others disagreed. The plans they shared for the future raised awareness in many people, but awareness was raised the most by the young adults who couldn’t vote. This made them feel they had no power and no idea what their future holds. Erin Hawthorne, a student at Engineering and Science High School shares her side of the story on why she became interested in politics.
“I would say I care about politics because you have to think about the black politicians we are having, who are the ones in charge of me, my future, and my rights,” Hawthorne said.
Over the election, many people on social media became Kamala Harris's cheerleaders, as she is the first and only black woman running for president. Kamala has made history before and many people thought she could do it again. TikTok was one of Harris's cheerleading platforms where many people cheered her on. Seeing a black woman run for president opened many people's eyes and made them more interested because something that never happened was happening. Beckett shares his perspective on the significance of a black woman in the presidential race.
“I think that shows that times are changing. In the future, we’re going to see more and more women making it farther into election cycles, and one day we will have a female president.”
The election and the person in office will impact the US for 4 years until someone else is elected into office. Some people see how the election impacts us now and others see how it would impact us in the future rather than now.
“I feel as though it will impact me in the future, but right now, I can only only think of how it made me more informed about politics and like I thought, it shined a bigger light on what it is like, rather than what it used to be. I feel as though it educated me more about the process and like other stuff involved.” Roache said.
There are many young people that wanted to participate in the voting process of the election but were unsure if they were able to contribute to the election, like Jayden Daywah a student at Carver Engineering and Science. Little d they know that they can help in various ways by “Find out if you can work at the polls on Election Day—many states allow 16- and 17-year-olds to do it!” or “Factcheck your research and then create media (e.g. images, videos, music) about candidates or issues you’re interested in and share them with others” or even “Organize or support conversations at school about elections and voting.”
“Since I didn't vote, I was more vocal to my friends who were 18 that they should go vote, even though some were stubborn not to. I tried to convince them.” said Daywah.
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