Some years ago—when I was immersed in political campaigns and trying to win—I began to take account of how I was appealing to the younger generations. So, what did I do? You guessed it: I checked in with the younger cohort. I have always been of the view that if you want to hunt ducks, go where the ducks are. Likewise, if you want to understand what appeals to your voters, ask them.
The opportunity presented itself one weekend when I was at the river with my youngest son, a very astute young man, not given to flippancy. He is thoughtful and aware of how his generation thinks, moves, and responds to the events of the day.
In the course of our conversation, I asked him, “How can I better connect with young people?” His response was eye-opening. He noted that people of his generation consume information—news, as another way to express that—in ways quite different from my generation. I was intrigued.
Why? Because in my generation, we consumed news by reading original sources. When we picked up a newspaper in 1968 to read about the Presidential election that year, we read reports based on observed events and quotes, without an author’s personal opinions or summary interpretations projected onto those occasions. As Detective Joe Friday of “Dragnet” fame would have said, “Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.”
But much had changed since the fictitious Detective Friday policed Los Angeles to round up criminals. He was a “good guy” among characters of my generation. Today, the far left would defund him and his police force. They would consider him a “fascist” until, of course, he came to arrest the person who just assaulted, burglarized, or savaged them in some unspeakable manner—context matters. So does reality. And that seems to get past people on the far left. But I digress.
My son’s observations about how his generation consumes news are important even today. He pointed to an interesting phenomenon. His fellow travelers tended to react to news, not consume it directly. How does that work? It starts with a new item that provokes interest among those who initially read or see it, and then they respond to it in some form or fashion. Maybe they note it. A bit more frequently, they express an immediate view or opinion.
And it is the opinions—not the original news item—that set the stage for follow-on expressions. So, when some snowflake or pajama boy reacts with outrage over a particular item of news, it is their outrage—not the facts of the report—that sets in motion a cascading response by people that spins ever farther away from the core facts of the report. It’s like the game of Gossip my generation played with an assembled group of willing participants. The first person would have a certain fact like “My cousin told me she just had a baby.” The next person would then whisper the message to another person. But by the time it has passed across the ears of several people, the message would be “My cousin just called me a baby.”
The reactions to news and the subsequent interpretations of the report become the “news,” indeed very remote from the original facts at hand. Such is the era of social media, when people react to things that are concentric circles apart from the original expression. Younger generations have become rebounders of outrage, expressing views that are inconsistent with facts and context. But for them, their reverberations are facts. And therein lies the challenge.
It would be good if the younger generation had a framework in civics and genuine history as they express themselves. In fact, they lack that knowledge, leading them to conclude that a socialist society—despite decades of proven failure—will deliver a utopia, and will in fact be quite the opposite.
Some would say. “We need to reform education in America.” Others would say, “We need to take back the centers of higher education that have become centers of far-left indoctrination.” That would help. But what we must do is create opportunities in the social media information space to set the record straight and encourage young people to reach deeper into what they are served as news to help them focus on the facts.
I’m not smart enough to do that. But someone out there is. Indeed, they may make a ton of money in the process of creating greater enlightenment. But as far as I’m concerned, success will be attained when a young person comes to realize that someone else’s opinion is not fact. It’s an opinion and should be treated as such and no more.
I’m glad I listened to my young son. He’s wise beyond his years, and I learned.
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