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The Kids are Alright! Drink, Drugs, Sex and Bebo
Read more about: Blogging, Youth
The census of 1996 revealed that 41% of the Irish population are aged under 25. This fact should make “young people” the single most powerful voting bloc in the country. This is not the case.A survey by the National Youth Council found that in recent years, voter participation among young people was just 38%. The average figure was 56% and among our more senior citizens (those aged between 55 and 64) the figure was a startling 75%. The result of this is that “old people” have a disproportionate representation in the Dail and consequently in ruling our country.
This should all sound very familiar to you. We’ve all heard these sort of statistics before, and chances are, that when you heard these oh so enlightening stats, they were accompanied by a sound-bite from some nice middle aged politician telling us just what “we” needed to do to fix this problem.
And there lies the problem.
The politicians and the media keep on talking about Young People but they refuse to speak with them. Young People have become the great scapegoat for the chattering classes of Ireland. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the recent coverage of events involving young people.
We’ll start off with the proposed initiative to impose a total alcohol ban on provisional and newly qualified drivers. I can’t say that oppose the move in itself. However, what is interesting is that the alcohol ban only applies to provisional drivers and newly qualified drivers. Why not all drivers?
Well the answer can be found in that provisional drivers tend to be Young People. In Irish politics, if you’re going to inconvenience a voting bloc, then the prudent choice for any politician is Club 17-25. A good portion of the people you’ll be alienating probably wouldn’t have voted anyway and it has the added bonus of convincing the old generations (who will vote) that you’re doing something about the road death problem.
And to make things even better for you, it’s none other than the crinkliest of all Ireland’s old codgers Gay Byrne who’ll be making the announcements. Let’s face it, if Gay told Ireland’s Old People that their pensions were going to be cut in half, they’d think it a good idea. “Gaybo” is to “Old Ireland” what Matlock is to Springfield.
Stop me if I’m wrong, but don’t young people have a more intolerant attitude to drunk driving than our older countrymen? All other factors being equal, are we not less likely to drink and drive? Should our politicians not be targeting other groups, like say non-nationals and middle aged men?
Moving on:
Bebo. Even people who don’t know what a Bebo does, know that it’s A Bad Thing. Mostly because it is associated with young people. The coverage has been hysterical. Given that it’s Ireland’s most popular webpage (bar Google), you’d think that there would be some acknowledgement of the fact that a great many Irish people use the site and enjoy it. Instead, because it involves Young People, debate centres around the potential harmful effects it might have on Young People. “Evil” and “Addictive” are two of the words the Irish Times used to describe Bebo. The coverage has been designed to exploit the concerns of parents. When the trendy hacks actually bother to talk to our much maligned Young People, it tend to be in much the same way as they speak to a representative of the BNP, the DUP or the travelling community. Young People, in spite of their numbers, have become an “other” in Irish life.
We see the same phenomenon when alcohol misuse, sex or drugs are spoken of. Old People speak of Young People as simply being vulnerable or being the problem.
A good example can be seen when you examine one particular live-live episode. Some outrageous Dublin based psychologist had decided that maybe it might be a good idea to examine the effects of ecstasy use on the cognitive performance of young people. As is standard procedure in research that involves a certain amount of time and effort, he offered those who volunteers a small token of compensation.
The result was that the post-menopausal brigade reacted by accusing the man of trying to turn their children into junkies (the man had targeted university students). Not once, did Joseph (or anyone else for that matter) attempt to speak to any of the participants and neither was it suggested that maybe, just maybe, a young person of 19 years of age, just might be able to decide for themselves whether or not to use ecstasy.
We got a lovely repeat of the incident when Joe covered the Magic Mushroom issue. Apparently, young people’s fragile little minds are so easily warped that they aren’t capable of thinking rationally when it comes to drug-use. Yes, we can vote, copulate and use heavy machinery (all at the same time, if we choose) but for some reason, our elders seem to think we have a problem with rational thought.
Similarly, Pat Kenny will devote half a Late Late Show to teenage sex. It’s a grotesque spectacle, designed to both titillate and repulse. While the middle aged mothers and fathers of Ireland might be disgusted by the idea that their vulnerable children are having sex, it also appears to cater to the voyeuristic appetite of people whose social and sex lives have been static for some time. Let’s face it, it isn’t just teenagers that buy Barely Legal DVDs. It’s hard to engage with a society that thinks of you as an object.
When will Old People stop worrying about Young People and start taking charge of their own lives? You can survey Irish schools for use of homophobic language if you like, but if you’re really concerned about homophobia, then maybe you should just examine your own attitudes? If you think that there is a problem with alcohol misuse in this country, then maybe you should drink a little less! If you think drunk driving is a problem, then maybe you should not drive home after those two pints, even you “only” live up the road. If you think that provisional drivers are a problem on the road, then maybe you should slow down when you’re driving near them. Who knows, maybe driving under the speed limit (as opposed to “just a few” miles over) might make your driving safer, and you won’t even have to worry about those pesky speed cameras that keep catching you out!
Politicians and the media tell you what you want to hear and Old People like to think that societal problems are being tackled, so long as it isn’t going to mean that they have to foot a bill or make an effort. The politicians’ solution is to project all of life’s problems on to Young People, but in the long run, this can only be bad for democracy in Ireland.
From the age of twelve, we teach our young people to think of themselves as being “different”. As a result they don’t feel like part of larger society. How then, can we expect that they will take an interest in political life? While the pundits who deride young people as being apathetic often overstate the case (most young people who don’t vote tend to have practical reasons for not doing so) so long as the chattering classes continue to avoid conversation and negotiation with young people, we can expect the problem to worsen.
But this isn’t just a problem for the future. It’s a problem now. If, like me, your first memory’s Podge and Rodge involve Zig getting blamed for messing up the Spaceship, then chances are, after 10 years of being spoken about as though you weren’t present, you still don’t feel as though politicians are speaking to you. Nobody likes to be lectured, so if politicians want to appeal to the youth vote, then they’ll have to do more than mutter about cutting the taxes on condoms. Young people today don’t even remember a time when artificial contraception was illegal.
The problem for Irish society, is what’s good for us isn’t always what is good for politicians. Our representatives gained election by exploiting the marginalised position of young people within Irish politics, so they certainly don’t have an interest in allowing young people a greater voice in Irish politics, in fact, they would benefit from the further disillusionment of young people with political life. Politicians are not likely to extend the hand to young people and the media seem equally unlikely to treat young people fairly, so long as they have a financial interest in demonising and emasculating the young.
Perhaps the greatest opportunity for re-enfranchising the young lies online. Bloging offers technically savvy young people the opportunity to express their views and to meet like minded others. Perhaps the secret to reincorporating the Bebo generation into Irish political life lies in, well, Bebo. The phenomenon that some patronising old fart described as a fad has taught a generation of Irish people how to build and run a website. In the coming years will Beboers become online activists? Time will tell.
Just remember, when Liz gets a Bebo page, you heard it here first.
“The census of 1996 revealed that 41% of the Irish population are aged between 18-25.”
The first sentence is so obviously and ludicrously false that I stopped reading immediately. Clearly the “Kids” aren’t being taught enough maths.
Niall,
A grand piece of polemic, and I agree with much of what you wrote, despite my being over thirty-five. A few observations.
While I don’t approve of anybody driving with drink on them, I believe that the suggestion relating to young drivers may have been made because of the statistical facts about the level of fatalities among young drivers.
I’m not sure that the young/old differentiation you make is really valid. For example, each five-year age cohort could be argued to be markedly different from the cohort above or below it. School-leaver, post-graduate student, an adult on the second or third rung of a career ladder, young married couples, would surely not all see themselves as first and foremost Young.
It’s also a fact that all the main aprty leaders have been politically active since early adulthood. When did they suddenly become old, and forget everything they’d just lived through?
That’s it. I have to take my nap now, else I’ll be overtired when it comes to my real bedtime and won’t be able to get up for work in the morning
Alright Peig, the sentence was meant to say that under 41% of the population are under 25. I’ll fix that for you now.
Frank, sometimes the statistics are a little misleading. What is true, is that of those people who have died in car crashes, young male victims were likely to have high blood-alcohol levels. So those statistics are hugely misleading and cannot be generalised to the wider population. There are too many confounding variables.
You’re right Frank, the young/old division isn’t really valid. It is part of the reason I used it. How often do you see the nice TDs talking about Young People? It’s ridiculous, and I think that speaking of Old People just highlights how useless the label is. The problem is that when you tell people that they belong to group X often, they start to believe you. Just look at race! So in effect, a prophecy is going about fulfilling itself as we speak.
Finally, you bring up an interesting issue in regards our party leaders. They all entered the Dail at a young age, but Ireland has changed since then. Has it become more difficult for young people to get elected?
Either way, I think I’m off to bed now myself. My back is hurting and I have work in the morning.
Niall,
you have corrected the first sentence but the 2nd sentence is now nonsense - “This fact should make “young people” the single most powerful voting bloc in the country.”. Given that those under 18 can’t vote, you are only talking about 18% of the electorate.
“Our representatives gained election by exploiting the marginalised position of young people within Irish politics” - absolute nonsense.
“Let’s face it, if Gay told Ireland’s Old People that their pensions were going to be cut in half, they’d think it a good idea.” - rather patronising of you.
Maybe we need a Pensioner’s party (Pensioner’s parties have got into power recently in Israel and Italy) to combat ageists like you
A point of information. The U25s in the 2001 Census were down to 37%. Any predictions for the 2006 percentage?
One thing is certainly true — many in the 18-25 age group won’t be voting because they are foreigners, a sector of the population heavily skewed towards that age range.
Actually Peggy, the second sentence would still hold true as far as I know. Though quite clearly, I’m not much of a Maths-head. Either way, the young do not have the representation that is proportionate to their numbers.
In 2002, approx. 650000 people in Ireland were aged between 15-25. This was compared to a figure of circa 1.2 million for those aged between 25-45. Ireland has the youngest population in Europe (or at least western Europe) so you might expect that this would be reflected in the makeup of the Dail, but the opposite is true.
I think you are taking it all a little seriously. The tone of the piece was supposed to reflect the tone of the general coverage of “youth issues”. So if you find it patronising, well good. Now imagine having to put up with that sort of tone (less any sense of irony) on a daily basis.
As a matter of interest, what exactly did you find ageist about the rant? By the way isn’t it lovely how “old people” think the own the term? I also think that a pensioners’ party is a wonderful idea. If older people decided to vote for a pensioners’ party, then maybe the current batch of parties would stop pandering to them.
And given that our representatives are elected by people who vote, and the the older you are, the more likely you are to vote, younger people do not have representation proportionate to the percentage of the voting population that they make up. Which is what made me say the our current political representatives benefit from the fact that larger portions of the older population vote.
Frank, as for the future, well you’re right it is hard to tell. The IDA predicts a future where the younger portion of the population will grow, but they would say that. And the arrival of foreigners makes life even less predictable. Average voter age will increase in a way that will not reflect the population make-up.
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How dare you console or even mention the BNP in your article. Do you even realise what sort of party the BNP is? Its a multi ethnic hated organisation who are anti semitic, promote racism and are anti Irish and wish to see all of Ireland to become part of the British Isles! It disgusts me to see that party mentioned along with young people. Of course this party should be discriminated!
Tomas, I’d like to take this opportunity to suggest that you take a basic course in reading comprehension.
I never suggested that the BNP should not be discriminated against. I suggested that the young people were often spoken about as though they were members of such a group.
Let me make it easy for you:
“When the trendy hacks actually bother to talk to our much maligned Young People, it tend to be in much the same way as they speak to a representative of the BNP, the DUP or the travelling community. Young People, in spite of their numbers, have become an “other” in Irish life.”
Now try reading that three times slowly before ever commenting again.