Youth Voting: Propaganda in the Digital Age

With the arrival of Generation Beta in the last year, there have been three consecutive generations with full internet and digital exposure. However, the vast amount of GenZ, the first generation with full technological childhoods, have reached an important milestone in the United States; they are 18 years of age with the new ability to vote.

In contrast, the average age of presidential candidates in the last 6 years has been well over 70, and in the 119th Congress, the average campaigning age was approximately 58 for the House and 65 for the Senate. There is a large generational and cultural gap between new voters and those campaigning for office. The battle for a seat has become less about who can swing the middle aged voters, which have already established voting patterns, but who can snag the new digital generation. To gain support, campaigns have turned to the political language all generations can understand, propaganda. But the question remains, who can transform their campaigns from posters, to posts.

Propaganda Throughout History

Political propaganda has been present in human society since the ancient civilizations. During Egypt's powerful reign, they would use temple reliefs and monuments to paint the Pharaoh as a supreme leader as well as to sanitize the ideas of war. Ancient Greece followed suit as Alexander the Great utilized coins, statues, and monuments to present his face to all of the empire as the most capable of holding power.

However, this was just the origin of propaganda, its more modern form hit key developments in World War I, when governments began establishing propaganda departments to push the war efforts. By the time World War II was at its peak, propaganda had taken on a negative, manipulative connotation; world leaders were putting racially motivated discrimination on posters around the nation.

Now that the digital age has dawned upon the world, simple signage and commercials aren’t strong enough to influence the nation’s opinion on a candidate or policy. Starting in the 90s with Bill Clinton’s use of the internet in his campaign, social media has become the newest pathway to propaganda and power.

How Social Media is Utilized Today

Unlike the early to mid 1900s, 19th century modern political propaganda has shifted away from war efforts and discrimination against ethnic groups to campaign and policy support. This change from traditional methods to social media has created differences in politicians’ propaganda strategies.

One recent shift of the modern politician has been to move some of their traditional campaign commercials from cable TV, which has dropped by over 30 million users, or 30% of its consumer base, in the last 15 years, to YouTube, Peacock, Paramount +, and Hulu. Experts have expressed a belief that these numbers will only rise with the 2026 mid-term elections.

Furthermore, political TikTok accounts are increasingly gaining traction as campaigns hire social media managers to chase the newest trend, fad, or audio in order to reach the eyes of younger Americans. It is also incredibly common for these accounts to directly compare one candidate to another, using trends to make a politician’s opponent look weak, childish, or idiotic.