Civic Engagement In A Digital Age Analysis

It has often been observed that the younger generation has little to no interest in politics. In Chelsea Scherer’s article Civic engagement in a Digital Age the author discusses some tactics to involve the younger generation in becoming informed citizens. This paper will provide a brief summary of Scherer’s article and provide a critique on the strengths and weaknesses of the article. Politics is a deep topic that seems to not interest Canadian youth and this poses a problem for democracy. Moreover, the older generation is often very skeptical of any changes in the way people access the information. Scherer begins her article by noting that the younger generation (age 18-24) has a lower interest in politics than previous generations. She furthers her point by explaining that this generation access their information differently than older generations, much of their information comes from internet sources. In response to this different demographic some companies have been putting out apps which focus on political information. She explains how the app Electr was designed to give the youth access to this information in the way they are used to. She also introduces other political apps …show more content…
She asks whether or not being more politically informed means someone is more politically engaged (2). She then explains that yes it does, but explains that these apps help with both. The whole question had only one paragraph dedicated to it, but the question is much more profound, it should have been elaborated on more. Perhaps in the interest of the article Scherer wanted to only touch on how these apps incite political engagement, but even then there was a lack of information. She should have elaborated more on how these apps make people more involved, perhaps only some do. This lack of elaboration left a hole in her argument that sticks in the reader’s mind for the rest of the