In a recent poll conducted by the Reboot Foundation, teenagers and young adults were asked to choose between keeping their social media accounts or preserving their voting rights if forced to make a decision. The majority of respondents expressed a preference for retaining their social media platforms over their right to vote.

The survey revealed that 59% of young adults and 64% of teenagers indicated that they would rather maintain access to their TikTok accounts and forego their voting rights for one year. Additionally, a separate survey conducted in 2022 by Real Research, an online survey app, found that more than 63% of teenagers polled said they spend five or more hours on social media every day.

“I think it’s frightening. I think that it really sends the wrong message like you always have to be on, you always have to be connected,” said Dr. Edward Connor, a licensed psychologist who believes communication is being compromised by so much time spent online.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has recently proposed raising the minimum voting age in response to what he referred to as “young Americans’ loss of civic pride” in a recent New York Post op-ed. Ramaswamy’s suggestion stipulates that individuals under the age of 25 would have three options if they wish to vote: serving in the military, working as a first responder, police officer or firefighter, or passing a civics test.

“Civic duty’s disappearance bodes poorly for America, and this is not a partisan issue. Young people no longer value a nation they simply inherit,” wrote Ramaswamy. “Indeed, decades of psychological research demonstrate people value something more if they have a stake in creating it. That is why I support a constitutional amendment to implement civic-duty voting amongst Americans aged 18 to 25.”

Ramaswamy argues that raising the minimum voting age and implementing these requirements would be in the interest of educating voters before they cast their ballots. He says the proposal aims to “create a sense of shared purpose and responsibility amongst young Americans to become educated citizens.”