Despite it all, your opinion matters the most in this world. We in the Western-liberal-democratic world tend to gravitate towards apathy when faced with the troubles of politics. This isn’t necessarily an unnatural choice when faced with information overload, but for anything to change, your opinions need to be heard and expressed by any means necessary.
People in technologically advanced societies are bombarded with information that is often dramatized to invoke emotional responses which serve to keep people on their devices longer to increase engagement on social media, thus making these platforms more money.
These pieces of information range from an emotionally exhausting comment thread, such as “ragebait,” to the most horrific acts a human being can inflict upon another. It can be disorienting and very confusing to situate in a worldview, so people naturally tend to gravitate towards apathy as a response.
Here’s the secret though: all these pieces of information, from the smallest to the largest, share a common thread depending on what your algorithm shows you, which can vary by person.
I see a lot of content regarding failing public infrastructure, wealth consolidation and a growing lack of empathy where people find amusement in others’ suffering. At first, they seem incredibly disconnected and randomly designed to optimize my emotions to keep me online longer, but when I think about this longer, I find a common thread: neoliberalism.
I’ve found that most of what I have issue with is rooted in the idea of “growth for growth’s sake.” As for how it relates to cruelty and suffering, neoliberalism places economic growth above all else in society and is associated with the philosophical branch of objectivism. To give a glimpse into objectivism, its central thinker, Ayn Rand, argues for always acting in one’s own self-interest.
This general connection helped me better understand my own algorithm, and while an overwhelming flow of information is still common, it’s less confusing, and there is a clearer point of contention between myself and the content that I view.
Of course, it’s also important to analyze why you feel certain ways about topics like this and to question your own assumptions, peeling the metaphorical onion of the algorithm that seeks to profit from emotional manipulation.
From what I have learned about neoliberalism — which is out of the scope of this article — it’s a truly destructive ideology, especially when faced with collective action issues, like climate change, and finite resources.
Apathy is what’s left, but it becomes less dominant once a clear line of thought and common thread is identified. It’s important, then, to make your voice heard in politics.
Politics has been dominated by a lack of good politicians. Most politicians are corporately sponsored and serve the interests of large donors without much consideration for the well-being of citizens.
Ontario is a great example of this, where the corporately owned Doug Ford continues to rule the province and succeed through corruption scandal after corruption scandal yet is faced with pathetically weak and incompetent opposition.
Marit Styles of the Ontario NDP is incapable of mounting a coherent media campaign, while a leaderless Ontario Liberal party is clearly unable to lead any sort of campaign, yet somehow manages to poll higher than the ONDP.
To be objective, if going by the previous OLP leader Bonnie Crombie who positioned herself as nearly identical to Ford, can Ontarians even say that there would be a difference by switching from one corporate politician to another?
Politics lacks youth engagement and it shows clearly. Young people are just as capable, just as deserving and just as in need of political representation in Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill as any other group.
Youth are the adults in the room, and the youth need to work through their apathy to become a visible and important political force.
And while social media algorithms tend to make youth feel this way, since it makes a lot of money, politics isn’t always angry, especially in Canada. Eloquence, competence and genuine political leadership are what this province needs more than anything, and only one group can provide it.
So, what does this look like?
It should not just be social media, because again, the algorithm circulates information to extract emotional responses to generate as much money as possible. While social media is still important in modern political campaigns, for the apathetic and burnt out youth, there’s more that can be done.
Write opinions in local or student newspapers, engage in student radio, join political organizations, attend meet-and-greets with politicians and talk to them. We the youth need to voice our opinions and not let apathy prevent us from being heard.