Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™.
In the 2024 presidential election, it was reported that voter turnout among Gen-Z voters dropped significantly compared to 2020. There was also a significant uptick in younger voters who supported President Donald Trump, according to the Guardian. Overall, Gen Z appears to be leaning slightly more conservative than their Millennial counterparts, a shift largely attributed to the influence of social media and its impact on shaping political perspectives.
Social media’s prevalence in our daily lives has only gotten worse over the years. People now spend the majority of their time online, doom-scrolling. Younger generations are less likely to get their news from sources other than social media. They watch YouTube videos instead of regular television and don’t listen to the radio in the same way previous generations did. Videos targeted towards young men are laced with misogynistic messaging and the promotion of male supremacy. Red-pilling, or the alt-right pipeline, can be as blatant as Andrew Tate’s videos or as subtle as male fitness content. Even engaging with YouTubers and streamers like Kai Cenat and Theo Von, who are deemed apolitical, can influence their viewers by making insensitive or racist comments labeled as “edgy humor.” Young men who idolize these influencers are being met with messages that women are their antagonists and want to erase men. Coupled with the current administration’s hatred for DEI and acceptance of white supremacy, it only confirms these false feelings.
On TikTok, tradwife content—a call to return to traditional gender roles—skyrocketed on TikTok and YouTube. Young women record themselves cooking, cleaning, and caring for children and discuss the pros of being a domesticated, submissive wife. Some have even rejected progress under the guise of self-empowerment by claiming that women should never have been given the freedom to work and make their own money. But these sentiments are all a reaction to the increase in income inequality, a rise in the cost of living, and stagnant wages. Everyone is overworked and underpaid, and for some women, identifying with tradwife content is a way to escape that reality.
But alt-right content has attempted to enter the mainstream under the guise of pop culture commentary. Candace Owens, who is known for dismissing racism and being an overt Trump supporter, is now commenting on seemingly tame celebrity gossip. But much of her commentary is drenched in conspiracy theories and misogyny that many women online don’t realize they are absorbing.
Although there are still many progressive young people, these social movements are probably all a reaction to a broken world. Gen-Z graduated from a traumatic worldwide pandemic; they are either struggling to enter the workforce or laid off from their jobs; they are dealing with a terrible economy and can’t afford to live the life their parents did at the same age. Social media propaganda can have a disastrous influence on youth, just as it can on older users as well. Parents should be vigilant, as social media are priming young users to accept and absorb regressive ideologies.
