Teen Girls Radio
With so much controversy surrounding the United States Elections, so much media opinion, celebrity endorsement, commercials informing viewers about other commercial lies, story contradictions, and misuse of authority that adults have a difficult time sorting through the rubbish to find the facts. How are 18 year olds going to sort it all out? Even when sorting occurs, the facts generally are just words in the end. Sometimes empty promises, sometimes intentions that later never come to fruition.
Choosing your candidate for President of the United States or your governing officials in general is an important, challenging, and research intensive job in the end. There are some adults that don't take their votes seriously at all, some that use anger in their influence to get others to see their points, others are quite intense in their decisions, some vote like their friends or parents do, while some do not vote at all. How are the new voters of the United States then going to decipher how to vote themselves?
Yes, most high schools teach the subject of Civics and American History, but then are we leaving the "swayed opinion" of the particular teachers of these subjects to influence the youth of today? If not these opinions, then are the new 18 year old voters going to sift through the informative commercials for the truth? Or, will they not vote at all out of frustration or just vote like their parents and friends?
Parents speaking to their children about voting as early as they would about sex, drugs, finance and of other life importances is one answer to this. Teaching children to think for themselves, to figure out who to listen to and believe, and that indeed people are sometimes truth tellers and other times speak words only to influence others, true or not, will be more beneficial for a life time than any other teachings parents could impart on their children.
Parents speaking to their youth before they turn 18 years old, not waiting until they come of age to vote in the United States elections is always a good idea. Teenagers should ask their parents if their parents do not first bring up the topic. In order to make an informed decision, all voters need first to decide which issues are important to them before deciding which candidate should acquire their vote. Discussions between parents and teens will assist the information process. Teens sometimes hesitate to decide at all if they are not confident on the issues.
An example of the hesitation, complication, and delay of choice for teens in America on the Presidential Election 2008 that I have personally witnessed, having teenagers of my own, has been a Blog Talk Radio Show. With eagerness a show was scheduled by a group of 18 year olds to cover the points of interest in the election and a mix of all of this put together and more stood in their way. Their initial thoughts on the show were that they were steadfast in their decisions on who they each wanted to be the new President of the United States. They realized early in the research procedure that this was not going to be as easy a show as they had originally believed. Few 18 year olds are confident in the area of politics and political discussion and were stepping a bit out of their realm. This is a brilliant example of learning as you go, incredible life lessons, taking on any task with youthful enthusiasm and youthful spirit that being 18 years old embodies in the World. One teen was sure she did not even wish to vote at first but after doing some research decided that her vote does count and has not yet definitively chosen a candidate. Others are still set in their original choice of John McCain.
Being a young adult, the World opening up even further to you with new decisions and choices, new responsibilities, realizations and expectations, and the excitements and disappointments in life all coming at you at top speed can be overwhelming. Embrace the changes and live in the moments of brilliance, learning along the way. Don't ever lose yourself in the mix and create your environments of happiness and well being partly by exercising your right to vote.
Stephanie Haile aka Wavecritter Google Me
Teen Girls Radio 2008 Presidential Election
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