The Election vs American Kids

A personal survey of how children under 15 years old feel after the 2016 election. You can find the video version of this story here.

The work I did for this article was a significant driving factor for my capstone project about the way that children process news. You can find the full paper here.

It’s no secret that the way that children, preteens and teenagers process media and current events is miles away from adults’ perception of the world. The way this group has been affected by the election cycle is all over the map, and depends entirely on their particular enclaves of influence.

According to a study conducted by nonprofit organization Common Sense Media in 2013, only 45% of teenagers in the United States use social media on a daily basis. The primary intake that most children and many teenagers receive about the government is through real-life interactions, either through adult or peer interaction. Given the polarized climate of most online spaces, for some it’s a decision that comes naturally.

“On the internet, some people just don’t really care about what happens during the election, and then others freak out about it,” said fourteen-year-old Caleb Stansell.

Common Sense Media also found that television intake was at a much higher rate of regularity in that age group than social media at a substantial 62% of teenagers who watch it every day. This doesn’t account for the different genres of shows, but news outlets are included nonetheless.

“Most of what I hear or heard about Donald Trump is through my mother, because we would watch the news about the election together,” said fourteen-year-old Graham Stilwell. “She did get a bit ‘antisocial’ for the week after he was elected.”

Graham’s circumstance wasn’t nearly one of aggression, but many children have seen adults and even authority figures lashing out as an effect of this season, sometimes in the form of politically driven flare-ups with their own students. Although the distinguishing features of authoritative unawareness have become easier to find, this new quality makes it much harder for them to hold these adults’ actions accountable.

“I’m wondering why they’re not talking nice about each other, because I thought we were going to have a peaceful President like Obama. Now people are all getting mad at each other and at all these decisions,” said ten year old Maggie Persson.

“I don’t know how the grown-ups could choose between Hillary or Trump. It’s really kind of weird that the election was so long and it got so strong. All the teachers at my school are getting so mad because nobody can be quiet about them,” said second grader Holly Persson.

Expressing the pressure to be heard has become a necessity for kids who are surrounded by the election’s atmosphere. In true 10-year-old fashion, they’ve thought of a concept to tide them over for a while.

“I really wish we had a kid president for us. Not even a real president; just someone who’s allowed into part of the government, and gets some kind of say in what schools should do and stuff like that instead of people who aren’t actually kids. They don’t think like we do,” said sixth grader Alexis Archer.

Based on the lives they lead with each other, they might be on to something. Holly Persson found the best case for this concept from a story about her teacher’s four-year-old son, whose classroom’s mock election put an artificial and misunderstood rift between him and a friend.

“His name is Preston and he did really good, because he told his friend, ‘Maybe we can still be friends, but we just disagree on something.’ And I think it was really smart of him and nice to make that choice. Because if a four year old can do that, why can’t adults do it?”