Students can Learn from Politics in Everyday Life

Tate Smith, Photo Editor

Politics are everywhere. They are all over the news, in our social media, our schools and even our sports. It is nearly impossible for anyone to say they are not impacted by politics and its topics on a daily basis, even our social media where we might hope to avoid it.  This reality is potentially a problem, or so I originally thought.

My original thoughts were that politics were overpopulating our lives and effecting our daily routine a lot more than previous years. I had thought that our schools had become a minefield with politics and an impossible path to traverse, with unhuman levels of careful precision and balance. My worry was that if we are daily bombarded with opinions, polls, and extremely swayed data, that we would not be able to think for ourselves.

*Quickly, though, I realized that my own opinion is always changing and remembered how political opinions must be made, with many gathered thoughts, opinions and facts. Each individual idea you’re told helps clarify whether or not you agree or disagree with those opinions, growing your depth of political knowledge. The exposure of multiple opinions strengthens your own power to debate your opinions. Schools have become the place of forming ideas or strengthening of different thought processes.

Is anyone else tired of Trump’s tweets? Don’t dismiss this platform too fast. I believe that one main reason to look into more of politics being involved in social media is the point I previously made, that being the more opinions you are exposed to, the more your knowledge grows. The most important part of politics is that each person listens to multiple opinions before a final decision is made, that means listening to other opinions even if you may not agree with their views as they may end changing your political support even in the most minor of changes.

American advertisers/designers have had to adapt to a current standard of political correctness that include everyone and that avoid leaving anyone out. This is not wrong, just that it seems at times that it has been shoved down everyone’s throat, but if they didn’t conform they would get attacked for its lack of. There is an interesting positive side to this in that it pushes our society’s conversation forward in these areas. Unfortunately, it feels like, the power of social media and other digital platforms, the conversation moves so fast that it creates a mob mentality and people don’t have time to process their own thoughts. They are left with either to join the crowd or be ostracized.This can also spread discredited information that favors one side of the political spectrum. Although there is also a positive side to social media politics, which is the spread of encouragement in voicing your own opinion by inspirational individuals. Fans of celebrities that post encouragement about going out and voting and voicing your opinion, could be more motivated to become politically involved.

My conclusion of the topic “politics are everywhere” is that, originally, we should minimise the amount of politics in our lives and only pay attention to them when they need our attention, but what I have concluded is that politics are everywhere, and are in the places they are for a reason and it is a necessary part of our political system that works better with the more opinions and thoughts you throw at it.