What do young voters think about politics?

fell “into a huge hole on YouTube” at the age of fifteen. He watched the news on TV with his parents, but half the time he didn’t understand why things were the way they were. “Those news reports were often about what is going on now, I missed context.”

He looked for something about the climate on YouTube. That first search led him to political analyzes and historical explanations. “Finally someone other than my father who could explain what the problems of our time are and how people are trying to solve them,” says Dowdall. The video platform became his main source of information.

NRC spoke to about their political experience now that the Netherlands is preparing for the House of Representatives elections and they themselves can vote (often for the first time). Where do they get their information from and how do they know if it is correct?

Political interest

Voting is simply a must, these young voters believe. This generation spends a large part of their day online and what happens there shapes them and their experience of politics.

“Almost all my life I found politics to be the most annoying thing ever,” says Kamran Zinaly Some Del (19) from Dordrecht, who studies media and culture at the University of Amsterdam. “Shut off,” he thought as soon as people started talking about politics. He now thinks differently about this, just before the House of Representatives elections. It is the first time he has voted, and that feels strange: “I am nineteen, but I still feel fifteen. But because it is such a strange time, I think: right now I have to vote.”

On YouTube and Instagram, Zinaly Some Del previously mainly followed accounts that offered him information about the situation in the Middle East. Without “actively seeking it out”, he was then presented with more and more political content. Thus, in combination with his studies and conversations with his parents, his interest in politics grew.

Now Zinaly Some Del mainly follows the NOS account and that of the American YouTube channel where he . “Those accounts really show what is happening, I think that is important.”

I think it’s great that I can finally vote, but preferably for four years

Dowdall (18) from Amsterdam is in six pre-university education and hopes that he will not have to vote again in two years. “I have been politically involved for some time and I think it’s great that I am finally allowed to do so, but for four years.”

“I love Rob Jetten, I see myself in him. I also like to run,” says Dowdall. However, this time his vote will probably go to GroenLinks-PvdA, partly because of D66’s plans for healthcare. “I don’t support how they want to absorb defense spending by cutting health care.” He made a pact with six friends to vote for a woman. Although Esmah Lahlah (number two) is his favorite, the friends decided that a vote for number 24, Fatihya Abdi, could bring more women into the House. “And number 24 also comes from Amsterdam.”

Zoom in

At the age of thirteen, Dowdall walked his first climate march, which is where his political interest arose. Online he started with the explainers from NOS on 3now he follows, in addition to the YouTube channel of News houraccounts from all over the world. From the Turkish-American, left-oriented YouTuber HasanAbi to the right-wing podcast maker Darryl Cooper. “I find a lot of depth online that I often miss,” says Dowdall.

He mainly watches long videos on YouTube, often while doing his math homework. Dowdall also receives a lot of political information on Instagram, but he does not see it as a legitimate source: “Ninety percent of the time I see short, unsubtle things there that I can then research and fact-check on YouTube.”

It was on Insta

Eighteen-year-old Juliette Jeansch from Amsterdam also finds social media unreliable: “’It was on Insta’, I don’t think that’s a reason to assume anything, you always see what you already found there, so in that sense you don’t learn anything new.”

Zoom in

Juliette, who is in the final year of pre-university education, can also vote for the first time. It makes her feel like she finally has something to say. That does come with a responsibility: “That I make the right choice and read deeply about the candidates and what they have to offer.”

Like Dowdall, Jaensch will also vote for a woman. In addition to public transport and the housing market, safety for women is an important theme for her. It bothers her that recently, since Lisa’s murder, the theme has become intertwined with migration: “As if all migrants would kill a girl, it’s not that simple and superficial.”

Jaensch uses the Stemwijzer, Google and ChatGPT to further investigate messages she encounters online. “Chat is especially useful if I have a specific question about, for example, a party’s housing policy. But everything I get from ChatGPT I also check via Google, so often fake news appears in it.”

Politics and social media are just a meat inspection, it is important that you have a nice appearance

She has been following accounts of political parties and politicians for a few years now. Instagram and TikTok are full of politicians who express their views, participate in a demonstration or do volunteer work. “I see through that best foot in a TikTok video,” says Jaensch.

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Zinaly Some Del does not follow accounts of political parties and does not often see their content. He likes to watch Arjen Lubach on YouTube: “I always find it funny how Lubach can show when politicians are just talking around.” Recently, for example, it was said that Mona Keijzer thought that people should be less able to object to new construction projects. “But she herself objected to the construction of a residential care complex opposite her house, invoking the nitrogen rules, which is quite ironic.”

According to Jaensch, the image of politicians online is playing an increasingly important role for young people. “Politics and social media are actually just a meat inspection, it is important in both that you have a nice appearance.” Appearance also plays a role for her: “It’s just like making friends, I think it’s important that people are well-groomed and sympathetic.”

Algorithm

voted for the first time in 2023, it became the Party for the Animals. The election results from that time still haunt his mind: “I had been waiting for it for years, but that result affected me deeply.” The push to the right and the “lack of substance” in politics made him despondent. In February he decided to join D66.

He calls his coming vote a trade-off “between ideology and effect.” It will probably not be the Party for the Animals again. “I think Esther Ouwehand is very strong in parliament, but the rest of the party is a mess.” He believes that what he would like to vote for would suddenly shift this campaign to the right.

“Nuance is not something you score with on social media,” says Khalil. According to him, it is the nature of the right to be louder and more shocking, and that is exactly what the algorithms of TikTok and Instagram are aiming for. All young people agree that the algorithm quickly ‘turns right’ NRC spoke.

Khalil mainly sees explicit far-right content on “Constantly having an existing worldview confirmed is dangerous in both directions, but on the right the content is much more extreme.”

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Yusuf Serkan Kunduz (20) from Rotterdam-IJsselmonde notices something similar, although he also sees other sounds on his Instagram timeline. He has been involved in politics since his early teens, he says. “I was politically aware at a fairly young age. I watched documentaries and it Eight o’clock news.”

He is a member of the VVD, but he will vote for another party in the coming elections. He believes that the VVD is not critical enough about Israel. “The Netherlands should not follow Israel’s lead, and it is a strict demand for me that the party I vote for also thinks so.” He sees himself as “a classical liberal” who stands on the right flank of the political spectrum. “Not center-right, but really right.” The parties that remain for him are Forum for Democracy and the Libertarian Party.

Kunduz has many left-wing friends, and also sees their messages. Yet his timeline is right-oriented. “I also see a lot of far-right memes. And I have to say, sometimes I like them too. I think that crude jokes can be made about all kinds of population groups.” Humor should not be viewed too much through moral glasses, he believes. “That is more part of politics.”

Democratic

Dowdall sees broad online access to political information as “something ultimately democratic.” It offers him the opportunity to look up opinions and truths from all over the world and to judge for himself: “If you only watch NPO, you get the same perspective all the time, I can break out of that myself via the internet.”

Young people can form their own opinions at an early age through the online options, Dowdall thinks. Don’t young people simply vote what their parents vote? “Why should I? I can look everything up myself.”

Zinaly Some Del sees positive and negative sides of this broad access to information: “It is good that as a voter you can look up everything, but you cannot check everything. Compared to the past, the threshold for distributing information and for it to actually be seen or read is now much lower.” He sees a danger in spreading disinformation and online influence: “Someone could make a TikTok and someone else thinks: yes, maybe.”

Khalil also sees that his peers shape their world with what they see on the internet. “Young people are usually more extreme and ideological than adults and that can sometimes disrupt the debate.

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