Show me, tell me: social media and the Political Awareness of American youth.

Miller, William J.

While presenting the commencement address at Oberlin College in June 1965, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. explained that "Through our scientific and technological genius we've made of this world a neighborhood. And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers--or we will all perish together as fools. This is the great issue facing us today. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone. We are tied together." Through his words, King accurately predicted (albeit unknowingly) what would become one of the greatest ails of the young generations of Americans to come: a lack of desire to understand basic civics despite having the technologies available to be more informed than any previous generation. Despite iPhones, the internet, 24 hour news cycles, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, scholars continually tell us that Americans are unfortunately becoming less informed and aware of the issues that affect them. If the trend is proven true and continues, our current generation of students risk becoming King's predicted fools.

The generation of Americans born between 1980 and today does not "bowl alone" as Robert Putnam would predict; instead, they virtually bowl on their Wii. They cannot identify five Supreme Court justices by picture, but they can easily tell you who Stephen Colbert, Stewie Griffin, and Eric Cartman are. If you ask them if they voted, many will believe you are referring to voting for their favorite American Idol superstar. They understand a sense of community and networks--at least if you are referring to Facebook or MySpace. They have grown up in the era where a Blackberry went from a business tool used mainly by Washington staffers to a key possession to any high school student. Gone are the days of trips to the library for academic research and letters delivered through the LJSPS. Arrived are days of YouTube videos being posted online before the event has even concluded and any piece of information required being available through a cell phone.

With the digital age continuing to develop and Millennial students becoming ever increasingly tethered to technology, scholars are taking a critical eye to questions that emerge from this reliance. For example, while Facebook may be a community, how does it compare to communities of old? Can technological communities compare in social value to face-to-face communities? Can we conclude that youth voters are actually more engaged in politics today than they were in 2004 simply because Barack Obama has seen an increase in turnout amongst the youngest voters in 2008 and 2012? Or is just affinity for Barack Obama? In 2004, would John Kerry have received the same percentage of the youth vote if he used YouTube and Facebook to reach this section of the electorate? Millennial students have grown up in an era different from previous generations. They are interconnected in a superficial manner (consider that a national satellite radio morning show once spent three days discussing whether you can truly consider someone a friend if you cannot remember what their voice sound likes because all you do is text message them). But more importantly, they are not gaining with regards to political knowledge, despite the increase in opportunity to connect.

In this paper, I examine whether modern technology has closed the gap in understanding American government between the current Millennial generation and its predecessors or actually introduced a wider chasm than previously witnesses in our nation's past. At the same time, I offer a discussion of the gap of understanding between ordinary Americans of different backgrounds. Through a series of surveys and focus groups conducted on two campuses, I examine the political knowledge of these students and how they perceive of the political world. I also assess their technological usage. Further, I discuss suggestions from Millennial students on how colleges, universities, and other interested parties can help MillenniaIs better connect with the political world.

By doing so, I hope to clearly gather a picture of what the typical Millennial student looks and acts like, what are her behaviors when it comes to technology, what does she know about politics, does she care to learn more, and how can we make her care more.

The Millennial Generation

Howe and Strauss (2000) find that there are currently five major generations comprising the American population: the GI generation (1901-1924), the Si lent generation (1925-1942), the Boom generation (1943-1960), Generation X (1961-1981), and the Millennial generation (1982-present). The Millennials have been alternatively labeled Internet Gens, Generation Y, Baby Boomers II, Echo Boomers, the Boomlet, Nexters, the Nintendo Generation, and the Digital Generation. This generation exhibits different characteristics from previous ones, implying that for the new generation requirements and expectations of learning will be quite different. (2)

As Howe and Strauss explain, they are the most racially and ethnic diverse generation in American history, with 37% being non-white or Latino. (3) One in five have immigrant parents, of which one in ten is not a legal citizen. They have been described as: special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving. (4) Strange finds them to be conventionally motivated and respectful, structured rule followers, protected and sheltered, cooperative and team-oriented, confident and optimistic about their futures, and talented achievers. (5) Raines sees a generation that is characteristically sociable, optimistic, talented, well-educated, collaborative, open-minded, influential, and achievement oriented. (6) They are confident, happy, and optimistic. (7)

They are the generation of technological access. They demand constant access to technology and possess the ability to maintain engagement in multiple technological activities at once. The Pew Research Center notes in a 2010 survey just how connected the Millennials are: Over half use social networking sites and two-thirds use technology to connect to others. Two-thirds of them have also created original content online. This personal tech-savvy is spilling over into the classroom and workforce, placing demands on professors and employers to increasingly incorporate technology into the everyday. This utilization shows a clear generational gap. According to Kiyohara, 75% of citizens aged between 18 and 24 use social network sites, compared to 10% of those between 55 and 64 and only 7% of those over 65. (8) When considering the utilization of text messages, Kiyohara shows that 85% of those between 18 and 29 have sent or received a text message compared to only 11% of those over 65. Likewise, 28% of those between 18 and 29 have sent or received an email, compared to only 6% of those over 65. (9)

Millennials--despite technology--have not grown up in the best times. They watched Desert Storm as children, experienced school lockdowns as a result of Columbine, and watched the Twin Towers fall as they approached college. They have seen a president impeached, numerous others found guilty of crimes ranging from bribery to prostitution (in either the actual legal system or the court of public opinion), and watched some of the most bitter campaigns in our nation's history. The focus of the generation has been on children and the family, scheduled structured lives, multiculturalism, terrorism, heroism, patriotism, parent advocacy, and globalization. (10) Personally, they have faced challenges, or watched their peers grapple with vices. Binge drinking, sexual abuse, eating disorders, domestic violence and sexually transmitted diseases are part of the common vernacular for Millennials. They have likely endured multiple school seminars on the topics before they even enter college. Between being ushered into the 21st century on the wings of reality television, unlimited text messaging plans, Facebook, Twitter, Netbooks, and Attention Deficit Disorder, witnessing success in major military offensives and an airline pilot successfully save a plane full of passengers on the Hudson River, and experiencing the effects of divorce, cancer, and sexting, the Millennials are facing a new set of challenges never before witnessed.

Newton describes that the Millennials "did not wait to start college to get out from under the wings of adults and experiment with matters such as sex, alcohol, drugs, spending money, or even different lifestyle options." (11) Their hectic lives have made them willing to work from schedules and follow rules--always structuring their time. (12) Given the nature of education and its emphasis on standardized testing, they are used to being assessed and are extremely goal-oriented. (13) They hold extremely close relationships with their parents, who have become increasingly involved in the lives of Millennials. (14)

According to Newton, these students receive "extensive and rapid exposure to a vast and ever-increasing level of informational activity, which makes them the most informed generation to have lived on the planet." (15) However, they tend to risk missing depth for scope given the ease of access. They have an uncanny ability to multiprocess--as evident by their ability to listen to music, talk on a cell phone, and use the computer all while holding a discussion with their parents. (16) Some fear, however, that their reliance on communication technology will stunt their interpersonal skills. (17) After all, a text message is not the same as a phone call. These students tend to be far more technologically proficient than their parents, teachers, and eventual bosses. They are on the cutting edge, always aware of the latest products and breakthroughs to emerge.

Despite immediate access to virtually any type of media, some scholars charge that this "cacophony" of information limits Millennial's ability to distinguish between valid, creative content and simple-minded self-broadcasted information. (18) Furthermore, the amount of time spent YouTubing, Facebooking and downloading from iTunes is clearly diminishing the time spent reading from a book--even one read on a Kindle. Susan Jacoby refers to the current generation as not illiterate but "a-literate." (19) A 2002 survey by the NEA indicated that fewer than half of Americans read a piece of fiction or literature in the preceding year.

In addition to not reading the classics, or even a recently generated piece of fiction, Millennials are exceptionally proficient at producing their own online content. As one scholar notes, the web may be full of "the sheer noise of a hundred million bloggers all simultaneously talking about themselves". (20) How many of these millions are Millennials? One can only guess, but the idea of a narcissistic blogger fits the profile of a self-indulgent 20-something. However, the consequence of all this blogging may be "less culture, less reliable news, and a chaos of useless information." (21) Or it could just be information the way the Millennials want it?

This technological multitasking affects this generation's ability for focus and patience as well. Well over half of American teenagers score below average on basic problem solving tests that involve such skills as plotting routes on maps and indicate skills related to analytic reasoning. (22) They are entering college without the ability to synthesize knowledge, despite the possession of spatial skills mastered by playing video games. (23) The power point summary is sought out over the reflective essay.

This addiction to technology is following the Millennials as they enter the workforce. Although they bring with them a civic-mindedness, a desire to achieve and are receptive to evaluation they also come with their own set of baggage that some employers find less than desirable. Older colleagues are not receptive of "their trademark flip-flops and ripped jeans, ubiquitous iPods and preference for text messages rather than face-to-face communication." (24) This lack of a desire to conform gives the impression of the Millennials as narcissistic and self-indulgent. Despite these drawbacks, many employers are finding this generation worth the investment due to their ability to adapt to changing technology, work in a team atmosphere and connect easily with a global marketplace.

Where this generation is struggling both in the classroom and the workplace is with the constant need for explicit guidance and assurance. Millennials struggle with "independent thinking, decision making and risk-taking" which frustrates professors and bosses alike, who need students and employees to adapt to changes in information and learn flexibility. (25) However, once they receive the direction they so desire, their ability to multi-task, utilize technology and strategize with a team to reach consensus comes to full fruition.

This is a generation that has been ushered into the 2lst century via reality television, unlimited text messaging plans, Facebook, Twitter, Netbooks, and Attention Deficit Disorder. Many have watched their parents get divorced; nearly as many have experienced a loved one with cancer; a few have been arrested for sexting. Millennials have expressed distinct learning preferences, including teamwork, experiential activities, structure, and the use of technology. (26)

The traditional academic lecture may not satisfy this generation. Levine and Arafeh show that those who have access to computers throughout their earlier schooling are even more inclined to demand technology be used in the college classroom. (27) What Raines ultimately shows is that Millennial students want six things from education: they want to be led, they want to be challenged, they want to work with friends, they want to have fun, they want to be respected, and they want the environment to be flexible. (28) These students are likely to be focused on grades and performance, busy with extracurriculars, eager to be involved in the community, technologically talented, more interested in math and science than the humanities, more politically conservative and more socially liberal. (29) Since they are more willing to do what it takes to succeed", (30) faculty should not worry about pushing them to perform at the highest leve1. (31)

What emerges from this review is a fairly rosy picture of the Millennial generation. While they are clearly painted with a different brush than their predecessors, it is deemed by most to be mere difference--not necessarily for better or worse. Mark Bauerlein, a former Director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, however believes the behavior of the Millennial generation puts the future of America at great risk. Bauerlein finds that Millennials "care about what occurred last week in the cafeteria, not what took place during the Great Depression ... they heed the words of Facebook, not the Gettysburg Address." (32) The constant communication amongst their peer groups has made it so that "equipped with a Blackberry and laptop, sporting a flashy profile page and a blog ... teenagers pass words and images back and forth 24/7". (33) Bauerlein finds a central paradox in where American society is headed: "We have entered the Information Age, traveled the Information Superhighway, spawned a Knowledge Economy, undergone the Digital Revolution, converted manual workers into knowledge workers, and promoted a Creative Class, and we anticipate a Conceptual Age ... yet young Americans today are no more learned or skilled than their predecessors. (34)

Bauerlein believes that individuals under thirty should not be trusted--as evident in his title byline. (35) Youth are believed to be disregarding books and reading in exchange for hours on the internet. But instead of using the world wide web as a tool for learning, they instead tend to use it to follow pop culture and relentlessly gossip about each other. Through sites like Facebook and MySpace, Bauerlein finds young Americans practicing horizontal modeling--looking to their peers instead of parents, teachers, or other adult figures. They expect instant gratification and are becoming ever more insulated in their own cocoon of poor grammar and civic illiteracy. What Bauerlein fears most is a dull and self-absorbed generation failing to properly account for its own existence and future, a generation with no hope of maintaining the intellectual history of America.

Students are typically not like their professors. Whether the faculty are Baby Boomers or Generation X, it is critical that they remember that what may be true for their own cohort is not necessarily so for the young individuals that make up today's ever burgeoning undergraduate population. With the Millennial generation being so vastly different from its predecessors, there is a clear impact on how they best learn and how professors must reach out to assure they benefit as much as possible. (36) The traditional lecture, for example, may not reach students the same way it has preceding generations. Newton reminds his fellow faculty that they must recognize that students enter college inherently different in their attitudes and behavior as a result of the social and technological revolution. (37) To successfully reach them, faculty will need to have greater flexibility and more options than ever before. (38) Merely introducing more technology, however, has been repeatedly shown to not be an effective means to improve learning outcomes. (39)

Talking to Millennials

With this background information at hand, the remainder of this study focuses on gathered data from Millennial students on two college campuses: a regional state university in Missouri and a city college in New York. The study proceeds with four overall objectives.

Objective 1: Assess the political and public affairs awareness of today's college students through objective measures.

Objective 2: Assess student perceptions of their own political and public affairs awareness.

Objective 3: Determine ways through which students believe they could be persuaded to believe that the public affairs decisions are worthy of their attention.

Objective 4: Assess ways that the university and faculty can help provide students with the information that they note as potentially useful.

For the Missouri portion of data collection, an invitation to complete an online survey was sent to all students enrolled in the Introduction to American Government and Introduction to American History courses being held on campus during Spring 2012. The survey was sent to a total of 738 students and 366 replied for a response rate of 49.6%. Further, six focus groups were held with a total of 49 students representing a clear subset of the campus population. For the New York portion of data collection, an invitation to complete an online survey was sent to students enrolled in the Introduction to American Government course during Fall 2012. The survey was sent to a total of 229 students with 84 replying for a response rate of 36.7%. All students received the surveys prior to the halfway point of the semester and as a result we should not conclude that the students were any more or less knowledgeable than the average student on campus. Further, in both New York and Missouri, the courses were required of all students so there is no concern about students self-selecting to take courses related to American government or history.

While there are minor differences in data responses between the New York and Missouri samples, they are not statistically significant based on statistical analyses. Consequently, I present all results pooled for ease of analysis and interpretation. This finding in and of itself is not particularly surprising as there are no hypothesized reasons why Millennial students in any part of the country should have differing political attitudes and knowledge.

We begin with a discussion of what our survey respondents look like. Out of 450 respondents, 90% were between the ages of 18-22. Students over 28 (our cut-off for Millennials) were removed from the original sample. Our youngest respondent was 16 while our oldest was 28. Sixty-five percent of respondents were female. In both schools, this percentage represents a slight over-sampling of females over males. If we were utilizing higher-end statistical analyses, this differentiation would require weighting, yet since we are interested only in top-lines responses, I do not find this to be necessary in the present study. It should, however, be noted. In regards to race and ethnicity, 84% of respondents were Caucasian, 9% were African-American, 6% were Hispanic, and less than 1% were of another racial or ethnic background. In the Missouri sample, minorities were over-sampled while in the New York sample they were identical to the percentage enrolled. Again, the over-sampling is not severe enough to alter the results given the purpose of our study. Lastly, 44% of respondents were first year students.

To begin the survey, students were asked to identify their own levels of awareness and knowledge of public affairs. In the first question, we ask about student perceptions of how informed they are about the structures of American government.

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Next, we asked about their perceptions of their own understanding of political affairs in the world today.

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Lastly, we asked about their generic interest in politics.

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From the figures, we can first see that there is barely any noticeable difference between perceptions of knowledge of world affairs and domestic political structures with roughly 70% claiming some level of awareness. When it comes to self-admitted interest, however, we find a difference with more students admitting to be both very interested and very uninterested. This finding suggests it is easier to state that one does not care than it is to state that one does not know. With regards to race, there is a divide between white and black respondents with black respondents stating less awareness of both international and domestic affairs and far less interest on the whole. While we are unable to suggest why this is with the current data available, it does posit a finding worth addressing in future research.

After giving students an opportunity to admit to their own awareness and interest, we turned to a series of objective questions which can be used to determine what they truly know. All questions were open-ended. This decision was made to assure students were less likely to simply stumble upon a correct answer. Questions and answers will be presented in descending order from the question most often answered correctly to that which was answered correctly least often.

Q: Who is the current Vice President?

90% of those surveyed correctly identified Joe Biden.

Q: Please identify one first amendment protection.

86% were able to identify speech, petition, press, religion, or assembly.

Q: Please identify one candidate seeking the Republican nomination for President.

80% could identify one of the twelve individuals who sought the nomination.

Q: Who is the current governor of Missouri/New York (as appropriate)?

72% were able to identify Jay Nixon or Andrew Cuomo as their governor.

Q: How many members are there in the United States Senate?

71% knew the Senate has 100 members currently.

Q: Who is the current U.S. Secretary of State?

71% correctly identified Hillary Clinton as holding this position at the time of the survey.

Q: How many justices are on the U.S. Supreme Court?

69% of respondents stated there were nine members of the Court. It should be noted, however, that a high percentage of wrong responses claimed there were either one or over 100 justices on the Court.

Q: Since September 11, the U.S. has been keeping suspected potential terrorists at what Cuban base?

64% of students identified Guantanamo (as long as we were lenient on spelling!).

Q: How many amendments have been made to the U.S. Constitution?

61% of students knew there have been 27 amendments made.

Q: What political party currently controls the U.S. House?

55% reported correctly that the Republican Party led the U.S. House.

Q: Please name one current U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

51% were able to do so. It should be noted that white respondents overwhelmingly identified John Roberts while minority respondents pointed more often to Sonia Sotomayor.

Q: What country saw Mubarak resign from power in February 2011?

45% correctly identified Mubarak as ruling in Egypt.

Q: Who is the current Prime Minister of Great Britain?

38% knew the current Prime Minister is David Cameron. This percentage would be higher if we gave partial credit for knowing of his predecessor, Gordon Brown.

What emerges from these questions and answers may be surprising to some readers. Unlike what Bauerlein predicted, on the whole most students were able to answer a vast majority of the questions. Students were especially well-versed in questions related to American institutions and current events. Where they demonstrated a lack of knowledge was on foreign policy questions; but even on these, roughly four in ten students were successful in correctly answering the posed questions. Of all students surveyed, 13% were able to successfully answer all of the questions on the survey.

If we look for potential racial or ethnic differences, minority students--on average--correctly answered approximately a half a question less than white students. This difference was found to not be statistically significant. Of the most interest, minority students were less successful in answering factual knowledge questions. On these questions, being a minority student made them approximately 27% less likely to identify the correct answer. This gap demonstrates that current event knowledge is spreading more easily to all students than factual knowledge which may have been learned earlier in the students' formal education.

In order to see how pop culture knowledge compares to political knowledge, we followed these questions with a battery related to things students may hear about through nonpolitical news sources. All questions were again asked in an open-ended manner. Questions and answers will be presented in descending order from the question most often answered correctly to that which was answered correctly least often.

Q: Name one television court show judge.

91% of students surveyed were able to identify a television court show judge (such as Judge Judy, Greg Mathis, or Joe Brown).

Q: How many kids do John and Kate have?

87% knew the former couple has eight kids.

Q: Identify one judge from the history of American Idol.

81% were able to successfully name at least one judge from the show's past and present lineups.

Q: Who hosts Hell's Kitchen?

40% identified Gordon Ramsay as the host, although well over 75% would have been correct had I accepted a variation of the angry British guy as correct.

Q: Where is the current Real World being filmed?

26% of those surveyed correctly stated the location of the current season.

While a large number of students were able to correctly answer three of the five pop culture questions, the percentages were not vastly different from their performance on the political knowledge section. What may be more surprising, however, is that students were less likely to know where the Real World is being shown from than to know David Cameron is the Prime Minister of Great Britain. This may reflect the decreasing ratings of the Real World or the idea that pop culture awareness is more selective.

While factual awareness is a useful metric, we can also gain a better sense of what Millennials know about the world by presenting pictures and asking them to identify who the individual is. The following table summarizes the results.

Politician/Celebrity Percent Identifying Properly

Barack Obama (P) 97.3

Judge Judy (C) 91.0

Miley Cyrus (C) 86.9

Homer Simpson (C) 84.2

Snooki (C) 79.0

Cartman (C) 78.9

Kim Kardashian (C) 76.8

Ryan Seacrest (C) 68.9

Carson Daly (C) 68.1

U.S. Senator (P) 47.0

Stephen Colbert (C) 42.3

LeBron James (C) 38.8

College President (P) 32.8

Governor (P) 31.4

Sonia Sotomayor (P) 26.0

John Roberts (P) 23.0

John Boehner (P) 18.6

Brian Williams (P) 16.4

Not surprisingly, the most easily recognized photo was that of President Barack Obama. What may be surprising, however, is that 2.7% of respondents were unable to identify the president from his official White House photograph. It should be noted that these students did make guesses at who was in the picture and seemed to be serious in their attempts. After President Obama, however, the next eight most correctly identified pictures belonged to celebrities--including Judge Judy, Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, Homer Simpson, Snooki, Eric Cartman, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest, and Carson Daly. All of these respondents were correctly identified over 65% of the time. Between Carson Daly and our next political photograph (either of Claire McCaskill or Kirsten Gillibrand as appropriate) there is a drop-off of over twenty points with only 47% able to identify their Senators. After the senators, Stephen Colbert and LeBron James (pictured in street clothes), rounded out the celebrity photographs.

The final six photographs were all of political figures. First was the relevant college president, which only one in three students could identify by photograph. Following closely was the appropriate state governor (Jay Nixon or Andrew Cuomo). The final four photographs--which were identified correctly by fewer than roughly one in four Millennials--include two Supreme Court Justices, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and a major network news anchor. In short, while students may be more politically knowledgeable than some predict, they are not nearly as successful at identifying key political figures by their pictures. Minority students did not differ in a significant fashion on any of these identifications.

With an understanding of who and what Millennials know (and don't), we turned to a discussion of their actual political behaviors and beliefs. We began with the most straightforward measure possible: voting behavior. Of the Millennial students surveyed, 36.6% reported voting in the 2010 Midterm elections. Of those who did not, over 50% were not old enough to vote in the election. Other prominent reasons cited for not voted included not being registered, not being a citizen, and failing to apply for an absentee ballot. The three answers which tell the greatest story, however, were the 19% of nonvoters who admitted to either being uninformed, uninterested, or unwilling to make time to vote. From the perspective of Bauerlein and other Millennial critics, these nonvoters are demonstrating their concerns about the political future of the generation. Yet, it needs to be remembered that we can safely assume that at least 19% of non-Millennial voters willingly chose to excuse themselves from voting.

In terms of their allegiances, we see a fairly even distribution of self-identified political affiliation. Around a quarter of respondents list themselves as moderate, Republicans, and Democrats. There is a greater affinity to identify as a strong Democrat than a strong Republican. Over 5% of respondents claim to affiliate with another party and just under 15% state that they do not know which party they identify with. As would be expected, minority Millennials are more than 40% more likely to identify as Democrats than Republicans. There are no noticeable racial or ethnic differences regarding likelihood of stating that you do not know your affiliation.

While understanding the political affiliations of Millennials is youthful, we can garner greater insight by determining how these students view the political world. We presented a battery of statements used to measure political attitudes and present in the following table the percentage of survey respondents who either strongly agree or simply agree with each.

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Statement % agree

Public officials do not value the opinion of 43.6
American youths

1 have a good understanding of political issues 37.6

Most people can be trusted 22.1

Politics is too difficult to understand 19.4

People have no say about what our government does 17.7

The United States should maintain a military 17.7
presence in Afghanistan

Citizens should pay higher taxes to assure everyone 10.3
has equality of opportunity

Politics do not affect my daily life 8.9

Our country is headed in the right direction 7.1

The most agreed upon statement (at 43.6%) is that public officials do not value the opinion of American youths. This suggests that almost one of every two Millennials feel public officials do not care about them. Such a belief could lead to Millennials not wanting to participate in the future as they do not think they will be heard. Just over one in three respondents feel they have a good understanding of politics. Looking at social trust, just greater than 20% of Millennials believe that most people can be trusted. Such a finding is problematic as social trust is often viewed as a precursor for civic engagement and political participation (especially on progressive issues). A glimmer of hope emerges with only 19.4% of respondents agreeing that politics is too difficult to understand. Yet, there is still a negative element to this finding since it begs the question of why Millennials don't demonstrate a greater understanding in the knowledge section if they believe it is relatively easy to follow. Just under 18% of those surveyed believe people have no say about what government does. The same percentage believes the United States should maintain a presence in Afghanistan.

Most troubling are the responses to the final three statements. Just over 10% of Millennials believe higher taxes should be on the table as a means of guaranteeing equality of opportunity and fewer than 10% think our country is headed in the right direction or feel that politics impact their daily lives. These findings suggest a strong need for helping Millennials more fully understand the reach and impact of politics and government. Further, we must help them to see how they can make an impact. Minority students were approximately 25% more likely to believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and that they were not impacted by politics; these results compound the earlier pooled discussion.

With a general understanding of what Millennials feel about politics in a general sense, we next turn to specific attitudes toward different politically relevant groups or individuals in our society. We asked students to rate a series of groups on a standard feeling thermometer from 0-100 with 0 representing cold and 100 representing hot. Before looking at the table of results, we should note that all groups or individuals asked about ran the range from 0-100 with a standard deviation of at least 18.

Attribute Average Rating

American military 78

Christians 76.5

Police 64.6

Envirionmental movement 59.8

Homosexuals 56.3

Bill Clinton 55

Republican Party 50.3

Democratic party 49.3

Barack Obama 47.3

Muslims 42.9

George W. Bush 41.8

Tea Party 40.5

Mitt Romney 38.6

Sarah Palin 34.1

Rick Perry 31.2

Herman Cain 30.2

If we look at the pooled responses, it is not particularly surprising that the military and Christians are the two highest rated groups (by more than ten points). Both are discussed in a routinely positive manner and viewed as nearly sacred in our culture. The fact that the environmental movement, homosexuals, and former President Bill Clinton all rank higher than other items on the list is surprising only when considering the self-identified political leanings of the Millennials we spoke with. The middling categories--all hovering around 50--are three of the most polarizing on our list: the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and President Barack Obama. Given the high and low rankings given to these three, it is not surprising to see them end up near 50 on the thermometer scale. The following three individuals or groups end up between 40 and 43 on the scale and include Muslims, former president George W. Bush, and the Tea Party Movement. Muslims are ranked significantly more positively than where they are typically placed in national sample surveys.

The lowest ranked individuals are all Republicans who were in some way mentioned with the 2012 campaign. Former Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney leads over former Alaska Governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Texas Governor Rick Perry, and former Goodfella's Pizza CEO Herman Cain. If we consider minority opinion compared to white respondents, we find that minorities are roughly 25% more likely to rate Christians, Obama, and the Democratic Party higher while being approximately 45% less likely to rate the police, the Republican Party, or any Republicans listed highly.

Knowing how Millennials rate specific groups and individuals, we can step back and ask them generically what traits they look for in their political leaders. To accomplish this, we presented seven attributes of good leaders and asked respondents to rank them from 1-7 with 1 being the most desirable and 7 being the least. The following table presents the results from Millennials.

Attribute Average Rating

Honest 3.11

Really cares about citizens 3.58

Strong leadership 3.6

Intelligent 3.64

Knowledgeable 3.93

Moral 3.98

Optimistic 6.18

What we can see first is that optimism is universally rated as being one of the least important attributes with an average placement of 6.18 on the 7-point scale. Honesty is the most important trait according to our pooled results with caring about citizens, strong leadership, and intelligence following behind in a close race. Being knowledgeable and moral were grouped closely together as well in the following group. Given how closely six of the seven characteristics were rated to each other, it is difficult to ascertain meaningful differences between different groups of respondents.

With this information at hand, we can begin to assess where Millennials are turning to gather information. To accomplish this, we present a series of mediums and ask students which they follow at least once per week. While we do not need to go through each line individually, a few trends do emerge. First, television news seems to be the main choice of Millennials. This result runs contrary to the technology hypotheses which would suggest that online news sites would be the most prominent options. Further, we see that many of the more specialized sources which are popular with non-Millennial Americans are not routinely watched by our demographic of interest. Most importantly, we need to note that 41% of respondents did not check a single option--indicating that they are not turning to any of these mediums for news or information at least once over the course of a week. Media consumption and political knowledge scores were high1y correlated (rho = .634).

Medium % who follow at least once per week

Local TV news 61.6

Network evening news 49.4

Local newspaper 49.4

National newspaper 35.3

CNN 34.2

Online news sites 31.1

Fox News 31.0

News magazines 30.2

Network morning show 30.1

The Daily Show 26.1

Blogs 23.4

The Colbert Report 20.6

MSNBC 18.8

NPR 15.8

O'Reilly Factor 9.4

Rush Limbaugh 6.9

News Hour 3.5

In terms of gathering background information on Millennial students, the final piece to the puzzle is to ask them directly what they feel is important and what they are actually concerned about. To accomplish this, we provided a battery of policy issues in our country and asked students to indicate how important they believe it is and how much personal concern they have about the issues. The results are summarized in the following table.

Issue % who believe % who are
 it is concerned
 important about it

Economy 98.2 92.6

Education 98.2 85.2

Social Security 85.0 70.1

Terrorism 85.0 68.7

Crime 84.5 57.4

Science/Technology 83.9 48.1

Health Care 83.4 76.3

Environment 78.1 66.2

Social Services 73.2 44.1

Border Security 70.2 44.2

Gender Equality 69.7 40.3

Race Issues 61.0 42.3

Gun Rights 58.8 43.8

Global Warning 55.6 50.1

Abortion 51.9 45.7

Gay Rights 50.3 41.2

Foreign Aid 42.6 26.3

The important issues to Millennials generally mirror those of the American public at large as demonstrated in similar surveys. Survey respondents identify the economy, education, social security, terrorism, and crime as the most important issues. When it conies to concern, they are most worried about the economy, education, health care, social security, and terrorism. The least important issues include gun rights, global warming, abortion, gay rights, and foreign aid. Those issues attracting less concern are gun rights, race issues, gay rights, gender equality, and foreign aid. It is of little surprise that minority students were nearly 65% more likely to devote more concern to race issues, gender equality, and gay rights than white respondents.

With the survey results in mind, we can turn toward a discussion of how we can best reach Millennial students to better engage them in the political process. We start off with a simple question asking what the students believe their respective schools could do to encourage students to become more politically knowledgeable. All of these answers were free response so they have been coded into the following categories.

Idea %

Advertising 28.4

Activities 22.4

Change course structure, create class incentives, 21.3
and relate politics to current events and daily
life.

I don't case 16.0

Speakers 11.9

A plurality of students believe some effort to better advertise political events and politically relevant information on campus will assist them in becoming better citizens. The second most popular response involved campuses hosting more activities that encourage good citizenship. Coming in third was the suggestion to make courses more appealing that touch on the subject matter and to help assure students see the relevance of politics to their lives. Just over 10% of Millennials asked to have more speakers on campus. Most troubling is that over 15% of students said there is nothing colleges and universities can do; they just don't care.

If we look at selected responses from students, we can begin to see some of the opportunities and limitations of helping Millennials better see the relevance of politics. Start with a student who stated the following: "By making politics a social event. Parties for political meetings, debates, and hanging out so that the students who have written off politics have an incentive to go and possibly get more involved when they see how politics affect them but doesn't have to cut out their social lives." In summation, this Millennial seems to be stating that politics must be fun and must not interfere with their social life. While this could in fact encourage participation, it is not easily achieved.

Another student suggests that we "emphasize the connection of politics to our own personal lives, and the importance of understanding our country." Such a response was reported by numerous respondents, yet the difficulty in such an endeavor is that making such connections is largely individualized. Consequently, on a campus of 10,000 students, a school may need to figure out 10,000 different ways to make politics relevant. A more direct and detailed response suggests that schools "show them how it affects them. The price of gas, the food they buy, the price of their clothes. Find something connected to politics and make the connection for them so that they have a reason to look into it. To learn." The question here becomes how do we best accomplish this task. Regardless, Millennials are making suggestions which would help us to better prepare them for their political lives.

Students also made a series of campus-specific suggestions. One suggested that we should "have a politics blog in the campus paper maybe. We could also form mock political party clubs that raise support for their candidates." While the suggestion is well-founded, both campuses surveyed already had active blogs in their student papers and political clubs on campus. This suggests a greater need for attention to be brought to already existing resources and activities rather than the creation of new ones. The structure of the introduction to American government course received a large amount of attention from our respondents. As one student put it, "Make PS103 less of a High School government class and more of an introduction into the relationship between a citizen and that citizen's government."

It is hard to deny that the typical introductory course on most college campuses is much beyond a high school civics course. Yet for faculty members it is a difficult chore. Some students enter my introductory course and could pass my final on the first day thank to their high school education. Other students would be unable to answer a single question because of their high school preparation. As a result, most campuses will be forced to continue teaching to the least common denominator.

Some students suggested very tangible things, such as: "One easy way to make students aware would be to install TV's in the break rooms that play only news channels." This would guarantee at least some awareness. Unfortunately, the following response seems to summarize the attitude of many Millennials: "I just don't think the majority of students care, which is sad so I don't know. They need to develop an interest for politics because it will affect their life one day."

Building off of the sentiment expressed in that quote, we asked students a second open-ended question: "How do you believe that politics can be made to appear more relevant to your daily life?" Responses are coded and categorized below.

Idea %

No Answer 29.0

Introduce more student related topics; apply it to 24.8
education. careers, and everyday life

Increase news and information Flow; use more 14.8
technology

Can't; Don't Know 12.1

Simplification of information; explanation should 10.3
be mote understandable

Already find it relevant 6.2

Politicians could care more about voters 2.8

The plurality of responses for this question were unfortunately left blank--either indicating a lack of interest or the inability to identify any possible ways. Just under a quarter of responses discussed introducing more student-related topics and better applying politics to issues of relevance to students. Roughly 15% of Millennials want to see more technology utilized and an overall increase of news and information flow. Just more than one in ten would be more involved if the information was easier to understand. Six percent claim they already find it relevant. And around three percent think they would find it more relevant if they though politicians cared more about them. If we look at our most troubling category, 12% of Millennials say politics can't be made to appear more relevant.

Looking at a sample of specific responses, we see myriad of ideas. One Millennial explains that "a lot of relevance would probably have to do with technology. Young people now really care a lot about technology, and bringing politics into our everyday lives via technology is a good way to reach people." As would be expected, Millennials want a connection to the technology they use so often. Another student says: "I already find it pretty relevant, but seeing other connections to my life would make it even more relevant." Likewise, another states: "1 think that if I saw more about it I would know more about it. I don't watch TV or read things on the news so I don't really ever hear about it." In both of these cases the sentiment is clear, yet it is difficult to determine exactly what the respondents are asking for.

As we've seen in previous questions, Millennials have a strong desire to see issues related more directly to them. One student explained that "issues could be related to college aged people more. For example, many people don't realize they receive federal aid for their tuition, or have received other forms of government assistance." Likewise, a large number of students were interested in having political information broken down so as to be more easily understood. As one student explained: "Making it more interesting and more straight forward instead of them beating around the bush to give you an answer."

The final two responses worth highlighting are representative of the uphill battle faced by those interested in bridging the gap between those with political knowledge and awareness and those without. The first student explains that her "main issue is a lack of time. I don't have time to watch or read the news." The second student perfectly summarizes Bauerlein's concerns with the Millennial generation: "I don't know that they can. I know that they are important and yet I still don't care. Too much is already going on in my life without me worrying about what's happening on a global scale." Such attitudes will be difficult to overcome and demonstrate the nearly Sisyphean task facing educators of some Millennials.

What It Means

The surveys and focus groups conducted on two campuses with nearly 500 students were intended to help us gain a picture of the political knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and beliefs of the Millennial generation. We set out with four objectives:

Objective 1: Assess the political and public affairs awareness of today's college students through objective measures.

Objective 2: Assess student perceptions of their own political and public affairs awareness.

Objective 3: Determine ways through which students believe they could be persuaded to believe that the public affairs decisions are worthy of their attention.

Objective 4: Assess ways that the university and faculty can help provide students with the information that they note as potentially useful.

Regarding the first objective, we have found that Millennial students actually have a greater political knowledge than many would expect. In fact, on average the political knowledge scores outperform pop culture knowledge. This is not, however, to suggest that there is no room for significant gains. With objective two, we have received a clear picture of where Millennials place themselves. And with objectives three and four we have read student responses to these very points that suggest myriad of ways by which Millennials feel they could be persuaded to care more.

Modern technology does not appear to be closing the gap in understanding American government between Millennials and our gold standard. In fact, technology may be introducing a further chasm. Only a small number of students mentioned technology as a means by which they gain news about politics or government. In terms of different backgrounds, we have found that there are no systematic, significant differences between Millennials in Missouri and New York. Such a finding allows us to view the group as a generation and not necessarily concern ourselves with geographic differences when trying to determine how best to motivate Millennials to be involved. With regards to racial or ethnic differences, we did discover a series of areas where minority Millennials expressed different opinions or knowledge than white Millennials. In general, these could be summarized as less trust of authority, a more pessimistic view of the country's future, and less factual knowledge. These findings will require further study and research.

Ultimately, Millennials are different--just as every generation before them has been. With regards to technology, there are good and bad elements. Technology brings us together by allowing us to follow each other more closely than ever before. There is a constant link and information is more readily available than at any point in our country's history. However, the online relationship is fundamentally different than the face-to-face relationships that have traditionally characterized our society. Suffice it to say, Facebook and Twitter do not bring back the forms of social capital that we so often lament the disappearance of in the past two decades. News may be more readily available, but we are far more likely to only be exposed to snippets. We can tell you some of the what but very little of the why. We lack the critical understanding., furthermore, our current technological capacities do little except make it easy to continue in this manner.

None of this is to state that Millennials are better or worse than any previous generations; we have no way of determining this. Instead, any type of comparison between generations is more like comparing apples to oranges. If we turn back to Dr. King's commencement address, we see a strong unspoken warning in his words. While technology can potentially lead to the development of the world as a neighborhood, we have not yet made significant movement toward creating an actual brotherhood. In order to do so, we need to encourage Millennials to better understand their own political surroundings (along with those of other countries).

Without first knowing ourselves, it is difficult to truly understand and relate to others. In future research, it is imperative to more fully flush out the causes and consequences of differences within the Millennial generation regarding political knowledge, awareness, media consumption, and general attitudes--especially (given the increasing impact of minority opinions as demonstrated in the 2012 president election exit polls) along those racial and ethnic lines that have been persistent and tragic rifts in American society across the generations.

(1.) William J. Miller is assistant professor of Public Administration at Flagler College. He is the author of several articles and books on the Tea Party movement, campaign strategy, public opinion, political extremism, and the pedagogy of political science and public administration. His current research examines how social psychology (particularly social trust) impacts citizen attitudes toward various policies and functions of government. He has edited several books on modern American government and politics, including issues in public administration, Tea Party effects on Senate elections, the most recent wave of redistricting, and the 2012 Republican nomination process. The author would like to thank his research assistants--Zach Chinea and Aaron Griffin--for their assistance in data collection and coding.

(2.) Diana Jonas-Dwyer and Romana Pospisill, "The Millennial Effect: Implications for Academic Development," Proceedings of the 2004 annual international conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), Sarawak, Malaysia (2004). Retrieved December 12,2011 from http://www.herdsa.org.au/conference2004/Contributions/RPapers/P050-jt.pdf; Diana Oblinger, "Boomers & Gen-Xers, Millennials: Understanding the 'New Students'," EDUCAUSE Review (2003): 36-47; Sandra Poindexter, "The Case for Holistic Learning," Change 35 (2003): 24-31; Claire Raines, -Managing Millennials," (2002). Managing millennials. Retrieved June 14,2012, from http://www.generationsnetwork.com/articles/millennials.htm.

(3.) Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (New York: Vintage, 2000).

(4.) Ibid.

(5.) C. Carney Strange, "Constructions of Student Development Across the Generations," New Directions for Student Services 106 (2004): 47-57.

(6.) Raines, 2002.

(7.) Neil Howe, "President's Institute: Understanding the Millennial Generation," The Council of Independent Colleges (2003).

(8.) Shoko Kiyphara, "A Study on How Technological Innovation Affected the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election: Young Voters' Participation and Obama's Victory," Ninth Annual International Symposium on Applications and the Internet (2009).

(9.) Ibid.

(10.) Raines, 2002.

(11.) Fred B. Newton, "The New Student," About Campus (2000): 8-15.

(12.) Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman, When Generations Collide, Who They are and Why They Clash: How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work (New York: Harper Business, 2002).

(13.) Michael D. Coomes and Robert DeBard, Serving the Millennial Generation: New Directions in Student Services (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004).

(14.) Neil D. Murray, "Welcome to the Future: The Millennial Generation," Journal of Career Planning and Employment 57 (1997): 36-40; Dudley B. Woodard Jr., Patrick Love, and Susan R. Komi ves, Leadership and Management for a New Century (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000).

(15.) Newton, 2000.

(16.) John Seely Brown, "Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn," Change (2000); Jason L. Frand, "The Information Age Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education," EDUCAUSE Review 35 (2000): 15-24.

(17.) Carol Elam, Terry Stratton, and Denise D. Gibson, "Welcoming a New Generation to College: The Millennial Student," Journal of College Admissions (2007), 20-25.

(18.) Andrew Keen, The Cult of the Amateur: How Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the Rest of Today's User-generated Media are Destroying our Economy, our Culture, and our Values (New York: Doubleday, 2008).

(19.) Susan Jacoby, The Age of American Unreason (New York: Prometheus, 2008).

(20.) Keen, 2008.

(21.) Keen, 2008.

(22.) Maggie Jackson, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age (New York: Prometheus, 2008).

(23.) Ibid.

(24.) Ron Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008).

(25.) Ibid.

(26.) Oblinger, 2003; Brown, 2000.

(27.) Levine and Arafeh, 2002.

(28.) Raines, 2002.

(29.) Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Go to College (Washington, D.C.: American Association of Collegiate Registrars Paperback, 2003); Megan Rooney, "Freshmen Show Rising Political Awareness and Changing Social Views," Chronicle of Higher Education (2003): A35-38.

(30.) Murray, 1997.

(31.) Maureen E. Wilson, "Teaching, Learning, and Millennial Students," New Directions for Student Services 106 (2004): 59-71.

(32.) Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future (New York: Penguin, 2008).

(33.) Ibid.

(34.) Ibid.

(35.) Ibid.

(36.) Oblinger, 2003; Poindexter, 2003.

(37.) Newton, 2000.

(38.) Donald E. Hanna, "Building a Leadership Vision: Eleven Strategic Challenges for Higher Education," EDUCAUSE (2003): 24-34.

(39.) Betty Collis, "The Internet as an Educational Innovation: Lessons from Experience with Computer Implementation," Educational Technology 36 (1996): 21-30; Diana Laurillard, Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Educational Technology (London: Routledge, 1993); Thomas C. Reeves, "A Model of Effective Dimensions of Interactive Learning on the World Wide Web," Proceedings of ITK '97 (1997): 23-31; Carol A. Twigg, "Improving Learning and Reducing Costs: New Models for Online Learning," EDUCAUSE Review (2003): 28-38.

William J. Miller (1)