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Generation Z Votes - Part 1
160 Plays5 years ago
Season 3 kicks off with a conversation with Dr. Corey Seemiller about Generation Z and voting and politics. We discuss findings from our most recent study on Generation Z's viewpoints on voting, perspectives on politics and ways older generations can help engage Generation Z in voting and civic discussions.
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Transcript
Season 3 Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to hashtag Gen Z. I'm your host, Megan Grace.
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome back. We are kicking off season three and I could not be more excited. I'm sorry it took a little longer to get back into the producing of season three. 2020 has been an atypical year on so many fronts.
Focus on Generation Z and Voting
00:00:30
Speaker
For those just joining us for the first time, this is hashtag Gen Z, a podcast about Generation Z, who are the young people born between 1995 and 2010.
00:00:39
Speaker
This podcast features members of Generation Z who share their stories and experiences to provide a personal take on the lives, values, and perspectives of Generation Z. I also feature non-Gen Zers from time to time who are working with and engaging Generation Z in a variety of capacities. In the last two seasons, we've covered topics and things like social media, communication, activism, religion and spirituality, music, and so much more.
00:01:04
Speaker
But I'm kicking off season three with a focus on a topic that, besides the pandemic, will likely be on the forefront of our minds, voting and politics. Even without the pandemic, many Americans have been thinking about and worrying about the upcoming election, and Generation Z is no exception. With the oldest of Generation Z being 25 this year, Generation Z makes up the youth voting bloc, and nearly half are of voting age. While the other half aren't old enough to vote this year, they're still developing a perception on government, politics, and voting.
00:01:32
Speaker
And aside from voter turnout rates in 2016 and the midterm elections in 2018, there hasn't been too much nuanced research into Generation Z's perspectives on voting and politics. So last fall, Dr. Corey C. Miller and I conducted a study on Generation Z's viewpoints on voting and perspectives on political issues.
Discussion on Gen Z Voting Study
00:01:49
Speaker
In this episode, I'm welcoming back my research partner and co-author Dr. Corey C. Miller. Corey is a faculty member in the Department of Leadership Studies and Education and Organizations at Wright State University. We've been studying Generation Z since 2013, but in this episode, we'll dive into our most recent study on Generation Z that focused on political perspectives and viewpoints on voting.
00:02:12
Speaker
Hello, and I am so excited to welcome back a reoccurring guest. We know her, we love her. My research partner and co-author and really conspired her in all things Gen Z, Dr. Corey C. Miller. So welcome back, Corey. Thanks, Megan. I'm so glad to be here. Actually, I should call you Dr. Grace now. So I'm so glad to be here with you talking about my favorite subject. It's one of my favorite people.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yes, for those tuning in, I have a name change, which is what Cora is referencing. I finished my doctoral program that I've complained about for the last two seasons. And we wrapped that up. And now it's fun and fancy free time to talk about all the things that excite us about Generation Z and
00:02:49
Speaker
this episode we're kicking off season three with looking at politics and voting and I think it's important as we're obviously in an election year but also Cory and I actually conducted a study on generation z voting and political ideology and so that's really we're gonna break down today so let's get started Cory maybe can you kick us off and give a little bit of background on what inspired us to do the study kind of where we
00:03:13
Speaker
got a little bit of this motivation and how we went about it. Well, yeah, Megan, I think one of the coolest things about the research that we have done in the past and continue to do and will do in the future is that we really try to get to the hearts and the minds and the voices of Gen Zers themselves. And so we really lean on this idea of qualitative research where we really want people to tell us what they're thinking.
00:03:36
Speaker
And so we've done previous studies using that kind of philosophy. And since we had written our book, Generation Z, A Century in the Making, there were so many interesting pieces that came up about context and events and societal norms and things that were shaping the way that Gen Z was acting that it seemed only appropriate that during an upcoming election year that this generation would probably have a lot to say about politics. So when we designed the study, we actually wanted to include open-ended questions so that we could get
00:04:04
Speaker
the perspectives of the Gen Zers themselves. So we didn't really focus on asking which candidate do you prefer or anything really kind of granular like that. We looked mostly at, what do you think of politics? If you could describe your political stance, what would it be? And we didn't put the names of parties in their heads. We didn't do those kind of things. We wanted it to be really authentic and from the words of Gen Z. So while it was a lot of reading when we had thousands of responses come in,
00:04:32
Speaker
It was also really refreshing because we could again capture the essence of what this generation believes. I think it was, and that's, you know, we always caution people, be mindful of the bias a researcher and author brings into something.
00:04:45
Speaker
I do want to pat ourselves on our back, I guess, for keeping that in mind that we very well could have come in and constructed this instrument or constructed the study to be reflective and attempt to bias our respondents. And I think that the organic nature of us saying you tell us Generation Z allowed us to become more of the messengers and not the influencers of the way that they think about politics. And so it's interesting because
00:05:11
Speaker
They're still very informed and they were able to articulate a lot of these things even without our guidance of saying like, are you Republican? Are you Democrat? Where do you lean on these issues?
Study Findings on Gen Z Politics
00:05:20
Speaker
It was really fascinating in general. I think the listeners will kind of want to know like, when did all this happen? Well, we conducted it in late fall of 2019. So starting in October and through
00:05:30
Speaker
November, thinking that would give us about a year before election time, or around a year before the election presidential election. Obviously, there's ongoing elections throughout this year. And we engaged anywhere on each of the questions from 800 to 1200 responses. And some of those are open ended, some of them are quantitative. But again, we just love the
00:05:50
Speaker
qualitative nature of being able to read the words of Generation Z. They're so powerful that it is, I feel like I know them a lot better now. And we're excited to be able to share some of those findings today. Great. I completely agree. And this is a really fun way of doing research too, is
00:06:05
Speaker
It's motivating and inspiring. Some of the responses that we read, I think, I really want to meet you. You've got such interesting things to say. And it's really invigorating when you spend this much time doing research. But like Megan said, we really were trying to be as much of the messenger as we could and not really try to shape what Gen Z was able to say, but again, giving them a platform to say what they wanted to say.
00:06:27
Speaker
Exactly. And to another point is I love reading the responses of Generation Z because they are equally passionate and humorous at the same time. They have this very unique wit about them. There were times when I was just chuckling because I think Gen Z is fantastic, but they have such an amazing way of talking about important issues while also staying entertaining and humorous. So when we say we're reading thousands of responses, also let it be known that they were entertaining and we had a good time doing it. Why don't we get into
00:06:56
Speaker
really what were some of our main findings. I know that we recently released a report on this and that's free available to anybody that wants to read it, but some of the things that emerged in our research. Corey, what were some of the high-level findings that you were intrigued by and excited to share?
00:07:12
Speaker
Given that this came off of some previous studies that we had done on Generation Z and the fact that other studies were out there, some of the things weren't surprising, but were confirming. So that's just as important in some ways. And so I'll start with some of those confirming findings. The first one is that the vast majority of Gen Zers actually have a really clear and strong political ideology. So while they might not be able to name that to a party in particular, actually because fewer than 30% of them actually strongly identified with a party,
00:07:40
Speaker
Most of them had a very clear picture of what they believed and in some cases didn't believe that any particular political party represented their beliefs very well. So that was sort of an interesting take because we see this idea of being an independent or being a moderate or being whatever it might be.
00:07:56
Speaker
being in the middle or not even identifying with a party as kind of synonymous with young people with this idea of apathy that they don't care. But that's not the case. We found that many of them were very, very informed and very clear about what they believed in, but just didn't feel like the political system suited them or fit with what their needs were.
00:08:14
Speaker
But with that said, when they described their values and they described their ideologies, a vast majority of them were left leaning. Some of them were leaving far left leaning. There were certainly some Gen Zers that were on the right of the political spectrum and some even far right, but they were just much more
00:08:34
Speaker
in fewer numbers that we found in our in our particular study. So and we have to keep that in mind that this is really important to understand is that while most Gen Z'ers are left leaning and you see that in the news and you see young people, you know, jumping up and emerging as they kind of, you know, rally for particular issues that might appeal more to the left. You're also seeing a small segment of a population of young people that are identifying with the right. You know, for instance, there's a
00:09:01
Speaker
There are student groups that are put together to advocate for particular politicians and hosting rallies and all sorts of things. But for the most part, what we're finding is this left leaning piece. So those are two of the confirming things. I'll toss it back to Megan here before I share my surprising, my most exciting finding. And maybe this to her is her most exciting too, but I don't know. So Megan, I'll turn it over to you. What did you think were some of the high level findings?
Role of Social Media in Political News
00:09:24
Speaker
So I think for me, just my background being in
00:09:29
Speaker
communication studies and from the very beginning of my career, I'm always interested in how people communicate, how people get information, how people distribute like distribute information. And I started that kind of study of life and like my undergraduate program when social media like the age of Facebook was really taking off. And so that's always been something I've been curious about this generation because they're so characterized by their social media. And so
00:09:50
Speaker
I was really intrigued by our findings around where they get their political news and where their political ideologies, as we talked about, are so important, how those are being shaped by the information that they take in. And so for me, I mean, it wasn't shocking that the primary place that they get their information about politics and issues that they care about is coming from social media. That is such a huge presence in their life and many of our lives.
00:10:16
Speaker
But it's like a 80% report that that's where they're getting their information and their news. And I think that's a beautiful but also kind of dangerous place because we know that social media is so user generated that maybe they're taking information that might not necessarily be accurate. And so there's always that level of questioning there, but I think it is unique because
00:10:36
Speaker
In some ways, social media has become the new public forum, and maybe it is actually facilitating democracy in new and better ways. And when we're thinking about how they take in social media for political news, it's almost a tie, actually, with the platforms that they're using. Just about half, or really half, are saying they use Twitter and YouTube most often to take in political news and information. And it's not surprising.
00:11:00
Speaker
their jam but then twitter is a really good place because i think it allows them to compile a lot of information quickly or or stay up to date with trending hashtags or things like that so i thought that was great and then the thing that kind of not necessarily surprised me but when it came to social media that facebook was ranked as high as it was in terms of
00:11:19
Speaker
of getting political news because I think everyone has started to see that Facebook can be like a really contentious place for these political conversations to take place. So I thought that was really interesting, unique. And I think something that even, you know, taking a snapshot in time, we did this study in late 2019. I think if we would do that, this study immediately today, we would see TikTok as much higher in its representation.
00:11:45
Speaker
But at the time, I don't think TikTok was a place where people are sharing their political news information and opinions. And I think that that's definitely changed in even just a short amount of time, like half a year that has changed. So I think that's a unique one. But I was really interested in where they're getting their political news, other sources, obviously their friends and their family members. But their friends came before news sites like CNN.com.
00:12:10
Speaker
or foxnews.com. These were their friends came first, then news sites, and then their parents. And I think that that difference in how they preference those things is maybe starting to identify that they might hold different political beliefs than some of their parents. So they're finding that comfort in their friends. Just speculation, but I think that that might be a little bit of something going on there.
00:12:34
Speaker
Well, Megan, and I want to, you know, kind of add to that with some kind of more contemporary stuff, too, is this idea of social media being so influential is, you know, we're starting to see things around the kind of accountability measures that, for instance, Twitter is putting in place about what kinds of things can be posted and what can't be. And what we're seeing happening is the creation of
00:12:52
Speaker
alternatives to things like Twitter. We may see alternatives to Facebook. And these are being spawned by the idea of what can and can't be said online. And so what seemed to be kind of a relatively free space to express opinion across the divide is now becoming partisan in a way where we may see social media platforms that are specifically just like some news sites have become targeted to a specific partisan
00:13:18
Speaker
kind of leaning and given that this generation one of the things we found was that they are really really searching for unbiased information and we know that social media is sort of a free-for-all but now if we go down the road of having different platforms for different views it's going to make it even more difficult for for young people to get the information that they need off of our social media sites just collectively.
00:13:42
Speaker
I used to think that social media was a lawless country or a lawless land where anything could really happen. I'm not sure that's going to be the case anymore just because we know the power that those platforms can hold and that there are real life implications for things that take place in digital settings.
00:13:59
Speaker
So I think it's really interesting how that continues to evolve and impact the information that can be shared through those platforms. So let's get into some of our more surprising findings, the things that maybe we went into the study and it went against what we knew or was just a really unique thing that stood out to us.
Gen Z's Independent Political Views
00:14:20
Speaker
Well, for me, there was there was one that really stood out. In some of our earlier studies, we picked up on the sense that this generation was relatively libertarian in many ways. And of course, you know, with libertarian being not necessarily one of the main political parties, sort of some people identified, you know, and voted for Democrats and some voted for Republicans and so forth.
00:14:40
Speaker
But what does that really mean when this kind of all comes about? Well, with our study here, we found, again, a healthy handful identified as libertarians. But a very, very huge number of them identified as independents. And our perspective of independence in the past has been sort of this very linear kind of view that there's really an independence of someone stuck in the middle. And that this somehow either A is a bad thing because they can't decide, or B is a good thing because they can't decide.
00:15:08
Speaker
But what we found is that there were two very distinctly different Independents and that really reflected this kind of libertarian philosophy. So we have this we have the fluid and the blended and you know, basically this notion of that, you know, we have one set of Independents that are that are
00:15:27
Speaker
very kind of versatile. They sort of go back and forth. They vacillate. They sort of, you know, they really are in the middle on so many things, could be convinced one way or the other. But then there's another group that is very, very clear about what they believe. So they may be pro-choice and
00:15:47
Speaker
and support Second Amendment gun rights, which typically happen, we have one that's a little bit more left leaning and one that's a little more right leaning traditionally. And so the part that becomes really difficult is for that particular individual to find a party that resonates with who they are. So they have to at some point
00:16:06
Speaker
sort of, I guess, prioritize those values and then vote for the party that leans that way. There is not really necessarily a party that fits that idea that I can have both liberal and conservative beliefs at the same exact time. And in our first study, we found that many, many young people are identifying as socially liberal but financially conservative.
00:16:27
Speaker
Where is the place for them? And then so when we get to this study, this is where we're seeing this come out. So there's not as many in the middle in this idea of this vacillating middle, as we imagine, where they could be convinced one way or the other, depending on the candidate. A lot of them are, again, very clear about what their values are and are finding it difficult to choose because they have to compromise one of those to align with either major party.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think that that was something that until we did this study, there's a lot of speculation that we are just kind of like, well, they really care about this, but they also care about this. Where do they fall?
Gen Z's Shift to Active Political Engagement
00:17:02
Speaker
And I think that even Gen Z kind of challenged us on that. They're like, I'm allowed to fall wherever I'd like to fall on that. And I do appreciate that of them of sharing with us their experiences and perspectives and challenging us to think like, OK, I think my most I don't know if it's most shocking, but it was something that was comforting.
00:17:22
Speaker
was their intentions to vote or their plans to vote. And I think in previous generations, we've seen that there's always this casting of younger generations being apathetic, not likely to vote, not likely to participate. And that's always concerning because as I see trends that if you're a first time voter,
00:17:41
Speaker
And you actually, if you register and you're participating to vote and the first time you're eligible to vote in an election, you're more likely to become a lifelong voter. And so there's always been concern that young people won't vote and therefore become apathetic. However, we see that trend change over time. However, I think I was curious to see like, well, is this generation completely checked out and saying like, my vote doesn't matter. So I won't vote, but I care about these issues. And in our study, we found like 86% plan to vote. And there's actually more young people
00:18:09
Speaker
within our study that said that they're unsure about their voting plans than there were that said that they were not planning on voting in general.
00:18:16
Speaker
But I think it is important to note the the importance of registration because we took their plans of voting and looked at it by their current voter registration status. And we do understand that some people are not eligible. Some people are not they weren't 18 yet or they just they didn't fit into that that context of being eligible to vote. So just looking at the voter eligible population, those who said that they were planning to vote, 94 percent were already registered. And if we look at the unsure group,
00:18:46
Speaker
there were 57% that were already registered and I think that when we looked a little bit further into the why behind people were unsure a lot of things that emerged were
00:18:58
Speaker
I'm not really sure how to vote, where to vote, how to go about the process. I need to do more research on the candidates. I don't know enough yet. And it was early. I think at that point, we still had about 16 people running for the Democratic ticket. So at that point, it was really difficult to discern. So I think it's unique to see that there is this presence of being registered. And I think the insurers are very easily able to be persuaded into the planning to vote.
00:19:27
Speaker
with a little bit of encouragement. And it's not surprising that those who do not plan to vote, there's a higher percentage of them that were unregistered. So even those who do not plan to vote, I think that there is this ability might be an uphill battle. But I think the encouragement of young people voting is important so that we can help them develop this lifelong presence of civic engagement. So that was the one thing that I was a little bit surprised by, not entirely because I think in the last few years as we've been studying them, we've been saying like, this is a
00:19:56
Speaker
This is a group with a lot of energy around them. They care quite a bit about their communities in the world. So I guess as they're aging and developing into
00:20:05
Speaker
And later into their adulthood, they're setting the tone early. And I hope that come November and 20 that we're still seeing their presence in the polls. I agree. And one of the things that I think is really important is that some of our earlier studies, we basically picked up on this idea that a lot of Gen Zers thought that the political system was corrupt. It was just a mess. They didn't want to play. That's what they said. I don't want to play in this game because I don't think it's fair.
00:20:30
Speaker
I don't like it. The politicians are greedy. And believe me, we read a lot of choice words about what young people thought about politicians. But the reality was, is they said, well, we're not going to play. And then I think what happened is that the oldest of Gen Z who got to vote in the 2016 election, they got to see what happens with the power of the vote. When you do vote, when you don't vote,
00:20:52
Speaker
and not even just at the presidential level, but even at the Senate or even local levels, the governors. And now these Gen Zers are getting older and they're saying, ah, okay, so if I don't play, the game still goes on without me, but I don't have a say. So I'm inspired and hopeful that this generation shows up in 2020 in much more of a force than they did in 2016, because in my mind,
00:21:14
Speaker
Whoever you vote for I you know having an informed populace that shows up in high numbers to vote is a good thing for democracy So I'm really hoping that these young people who didn't quite understand the implication of not voting are now inspired to maybe go out and vote and even the young people who weren't eligible in 2016 see the power of the vote because they see what politicians and lawmakers have the capability of being able to do to influence into to
00:21:40
Speaker
you know, make changes or to uphold things within the living conditions that they're used to. So I'm inspired that maybe they're just going to come out, frankly, because they now know exactly what it means to not come out. When I think that they've been doing a great deal of self-study on politics and civic engagement, especially as they see younger politicians,
00:22:01
Speaker
moving into positions of power and realizing that individual votes can make that happen. And I think regardless of where you fall in support, looking at AOC and her run in being a young woman by standards of the rest of her peers,
00:22:18
Speaker
makes them realize that I should be voting in my local elections. My local elections can have a very big implication for things that have their way of moving up into the hierarchy of things. And so I think we're going to see them also coming out, not just for the every four year presidential elections, but I think we're going to see them at the midterms. I think we're going to see them at local elections.
00:22:37
Speaker
a lot more than we have in previous years because they're recognizing that local politics and state-level politics have a very, very, very important role in the larger grand scheme of things. So I think we're also seeing that they're finding inspiration in voting in people that they more so align with, that they want new leadership. They want people that are willing to, you know,
00:22:58
Speaker
shake things up a little bit or be steadfast in their values if they're not going to shake things up. And so it'll be really interesting. Again, I'm also very hopeful that we see them showing up a lot throughout the next few months in the primaries that are remaining and in the presidential election in November.
00:23:14
Speaker
I think there's a lot that we can do to motivate Generation Z to getting to the polls and being prepared to do so. We outlined some of this in our report, but Cora, I'd love to talk because I think that you and I, we hold different identities when it comes to engaging with Generation Z, but wrapping up with some tangible things
Empowering Gen Z with Unbiased Information
00:23:35
Speaker
that
00:23:35
Speaker
different people or different groups that support Generation Z can be doing to encourage the vote. And that's one of those things that regardless of where you fall politically, I think we can all agree that the most American thing you can do is to utilize your vote. And so how can we help support this next generation?
00:23:51
Speaker
Well, I think to one of the points that Generation Z folks in our study kept saying over and over is, I don't feel like I have enough access to unbiased information. I don't even know where to go. Look, I'm getting these, you know, I'm seeing, you know, commercials if they have access to commercials or ads that are popping up on their social media sites or news sites. They're the news is, you know, partisan. They just are saying, I'm not sure where to go. And I mean, I have to I have to say, I have a hard time figuring out where to go to. Where do you go to get just a candidate platform? You can go to their website. Great.
00:24:20
Speaker
But where do you go to really kind of get an overview of what is happening? What is going on? I appreciate that in my home state of Arizona, we get this great mailer and sent to us before elections. And usually the mailer has all sorts of details about every single candidate that's running and every single issue that's on for our ballot initiatives and pros and cons and letters that you can write in, supporting or not.
00:24:45
Speaker
And I used to have little parties where I gather people around and we sit and talk through all of these things because it was really hard to understand. I think that that is one of the best ways that we can help, whether as educators or as parents, that we can help our kids all together, work together to find some unbiased information, gather it from your local voting
00:25:04
Speaker
you're voting websites from your local communities where they might have some information that's on there, just overviews and bios of everybody down to the judges that are going up for election in your state, if that's the case. But really helping young people find ways to self-educate about what the issues are, if you have local issues, who the local and federal politicians are,
00:25:29
Speaker
and how to access that information. And if it means sitting down and doing it together, then I think that that's a great thing. And so I think both teachers and parents, this is probably one of the most important things that we can do is helping educate them. Because once young people are educated, they'll probably be more comfortable and more confident and likely to go and vote because they know exactly what they're doing. But if they don't have the information, it's hard to motivate them to go do something.
00:25:52
Speaker
I think education is a big piece of it. I'm excited then I've got some opportunity to talk with some young people that are doing a lot of this education and excited to share some of their story actually in the next episode to to share what they're doing but they will also attest that there isn't enough education out there and people young people especially feel very overwhelmed by understanding the entire system little and how they're able to participate in it. So I 100% agree with that. I think there's also this element of logistics that go into voting and
00:26:23
Speaker
that they, I think there's some ways that we can help foster more positive environments to encouraging young people to vote. Some of the things that they brought up in our study is like, well, if I have to work all day, how am I supposed to go potentially wait in a line for an hour, an hour and a half? Or how am I able to fill up paperwork if it's something that has to be done in person? And so I think there's a lot of opportunities that
00:26:50
Speaker
especially supervisors, educators that we can be doing to encourage the participation of voting and in doing that I think that supervisors celebrating and encouraging those who vote again in a nonpartisan way but just being able to say like you know we're going to give you two hours for lunch or
00:27:11
Speaker
whatever it might be to ensure that people aren't feeling like they're going to be penalized, even if they aren't going to for voting. I think there's ways that educators can be utilizing the election as a really good tool for learning about civic systems. But also, again, especially in the higher education level, what are we doing on campuses to celebrate those who are voting and utilizing that and celebrating the importance of democracy and voting? So I think there's some logistic things that we can help set young people up to do.
00:27:40
Speaker
I know even some of them cited getting to the election spot. If they don't have a car, they don't have any way to get there, how can they, you know, cast their vote? And so I think there are ways that we can be supporting them doing carpools. I know we're still living through a pandemic, so being socially distant and safe with all of that.
00:28:01
Speaker
But I know that Lyft is also encouraged in some places a free rides to the polling locations utilizing codes. I hope that companies and organizations will continue to support voters in that way. But that would definitely removal as logistical barrier. But there's I think a lot of ways that we can consider
00:28:18
Speaker
the importance of voting and encouraging and removing some of the logistical barriers. And Megan, I think one of the things that's really important for us to think about now is this notion of the reduction in polls, polling locations. There are some states that have reduced 50%, 75% of polling locations, perhaps permanently, perhaps just simply because we're in a COVID-19 pandemic. Who knows? But the reality is that there are people that
00:28:45
Speaker
sometimes they're waiting eight, 10 hours in line and get to the front and the doors are closed. So what, you know, another encouraging thing to think about is helping young people sign up for vote by mail, if that's an option in your state is, and helping them go through that because I know that that's a whole set of paperwork. It's not automatic and making sure that they have an updated address and they're ready to go and get that. And a lot of states require that to be done 30 days, 60 days before an election, all sorts of things.
00:29:13
Speaker
So this might be, this access to voting might also be included in this idea of doing it by mail.
Encouraging Gen Z Voting Participation
00:29:18
Speaker
So really thinking about how do we work around the limitations and the inability or inaccessibility of voting that not everybody has access to these days when it comes to voting in person. So that's certainly something we can do as educators, parents, and even peers. If you've already figured out how to vote by mail and sign up for it, show one of your friends how to do it so that you can make sure that that registration carries over to a vote by mail status.
00:29:42
Speaker
Yes. And if you are listening to this, if you are Generation Z, even if you aren't Generation Z, registering to become a voter and making sure that you're ready to go for any upcoming elections is super simple. You just have to go to vote.gov, and you can use a dropdown menu to find all of the qualifications you need to have for your state. And that'll also help you get informed on upcoming elections. So that's vote.com, V-O-T-E dot G-O-V. Pretty simple. I think voter registration takes
00:30:10
Speaker
Maybe two minutes. Most of the time it's just confirming your address, especially as we're looking at the pandemic, look into your mail and voting. I know that in my home state of Tennessee, they have authorized that all citizens can vote by mail if they want to, which I'm appreciative of. I think, I mean, Corey, I think we've really talked quite a bit about some amazing things that we can look forward to Generation Z, how we can encourage Generation Z. But do you have any final kind of closing thoughts about Generation Z when it comes to politics and voting and some of their political ideologies?
00:30:42
Speaker
One of the things I think that this report lays the foundation for is understanding that the way in which this young generation engages in politics isn't necessarily just simply through voting or not voting. What we're starting to see is that they're asserting their voices in various ways.
00:30:59
Speaker
through mobilizing efforts, through protests, through numbers of things that do directly impact voting and the electoral process. And so again, one of the things that inspires me about this generation is that they're not real happy with the system that's set up. And they came from the mentality of, I don't want to play in it, but now they're trying to make it better. They're challenging it. They're working around it.
00:31:23
Speaker
They're influencing it in ways that we still don't know yet as they're unfolding. So I think it's really neat to see the energy that they have and whether you agree or don't agree on their values or their motivations. The idea is that this is an energized, passionate group of people and they want to do good by the world.
00:31:44
Speaker
They're doing all different kinds of things to in their minds to make that happen. So it's an unfolding story that doesn't quite have an end yet, but hopefully we can at least start capturing it now and see how the ending actually plays out. There's so much potential at this generation.
00:32:00
Speaker
I feel like it's just they show us every day the ways in which they can be prominent players in some important aspects of our society. I think the thing that gives me hope is that their demand for new leadership. I'm not saying new, but maybe new and improved styles of leadership.
00:32:17
Speaker
that they aren't asking for much. They're just asking for good and ethical leaders who will listen to them and let them be a part of it. I think that really broadens the ability for them to look at people as, are they a good human for this job? Not, are they a career politician who might be entrenched in a system that is causing corrupt problems? So I think that they're going to continually challenge us as older generations and challenge the system to think about how humans operate within it
00:32:47
Speaker
and the ethics and keeping people accountable and really think they're sick of the fighting. They want something that's efficient. And so I think we're going to continue to hear that. And I hope that candidates and current elected officials are willing to listen to them because this is a generation that's so informed and so educated. If we give them an opportunity to share their voice and be a part of the problem solving, I truly believe we'll be in a much better place.
00:33:09
Speaker
Well, Corey, I want to thank you again for joining today and sharing a bit more about our research. It's always wonderful to have you part of the conversation. Well, thanks for having me on, Megan. I always enjoy talking about Generation Z and particularly about politics, especially in the time that we're in. So please remember that our report is available for free on our website.
00:33:30
Speaker
at TheGenZHub.com. So please feel free to download it, get some ideas off of it, how you can either as a Gen Z'er get motivated and go out and get access to voting, or how others can help Gen Z be able to make a really important decision as we come up on elections here in the next few months. And as Corey mentioned, that is available on our shared website, TheGenZHub.com. It is also available on both of our professional websites.
00:33:55
Speaker
And we do want to have a moment to thank our partners in this report. Ology is a marketing and design and branding firm based in Columbus, Ohio, and they specify in helping institutions of higher education and nonprofits and organizations that are doing really good work. And so we were so thankful to be able to work with them. They have an amazing team that very mission driven, very values oriented team.
00:34:18
Speaker
in making sure that good messages are shared. And we are so thankful for their time and their talent that they helped in contributing and making our report truly something beautiful. I love looking at it. They did such an amazing job, but we're thankful for their partnership and to all of our ology friends.
Acknowledgments and Next Episode Preview
00:34:35
Speaker
We love you and we're really thankful to be able to work with you. Since we started studying Generation Z,
00:34:44
Speaker
We knew that this generation would be a cohort that makes moves and demands change for good. As we've seen them grow up and enter new environments in the last few years, like college and the workforce, we've seen shifts in their perspectives on social issues and their motivation to be civically involved. Where they previously shared being disenchanted with the government and politics and saw it as a broken system, they've come to recognize that they also have a duty to share their voice
00:35:07
Speaker
and engage with the system while determining ways they can bring about change and other avenues. My conversation with Corey is just a starting point for this season, and the focus will it'll take on the political and social issues important to Generation Z. I'll be continuing this conversation about voting and civic engagement in the next episode with the co-executive directors of Coalition Z, a youth-led organization that works to create political change by bridging the gap between Generation Z and the government. And I can tell you now, you don't want to miss it.
00:35:35
Speaker
If you want to learn more about Generation Z related to voting in politics, I encourage you to check out our Voices on Voting Research Report. You can access the report for free at the genzhub.com, as well as on my website, meganmgrace.com. And we want to share a big thank you again to our partners at Ology for helping us bring to life the report.
00:35:53
Speaker
and a little civic engagement and democracy plug. If you haven't registered to vote yet, please do so. Your voice matters and deserves to be heard. If you're eligible to vote in the United States, you can find more information about registration for your state at vote.gov. That's V-O-T-E dot G-O-V.
00:36:09
Speaker
While I took a longer than normal break from podcasting between season two and three, I was excited because I was working on a new project with Corey. We recently released a new series of online courses about Generation Z. We're excited to launch this new resource for people interested in learning about Generation Z and who want to develop strategies to best work with and engage members of Generation Z. The courses are designed so that you can tailor your learning experience by taking one course, a bundle of a few courses, or completing all 10. You can learn more
00:36:38
Speaker
You can learn more about our courses and register at thegenzhub.thinkific.com. And to save 15% on all courses and bundles, you can use a special offer code for hashtag genzlisteners. That code is genzpodcast15. Again, that's genzpodcast15. I'll include all of this in the show overview on my website so that you can have that readily available. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:37:04
Speaker
Season three is just getting started, and I'm so excited about the wonderful guests that I'm gonna be able to feature, the conversations we'll be able to have, and the stories we're going to share. If you have a topic you're interested in or a member of Generation Z that I need to chat with, please head over to my website, meganmgrace.com, or you can find me on social media to drop me a quick note. Thank you again for stopping by for this episode. Let's continue this conversation in season three, and we'll chat soon.