The first Democratic debate aired on Tuesday. Did anyone care to watch it, or were you too busy catching up on Teen Mom 2?

Young people, such as myself, are very opinionated. No duh, right? Unfortunately, many of us are willing to put our two cents in, but we’re not willing to take the time to participate in creating change. Time and time again I hear young folks, especially around campus, talking about how terrible our government is and the politicians who ru[i]n it. Talking about how we need to change, stop getting into wars, stop creating more debt, stop cutting funding for education, etc. We can all talk about these topics until we’re blue in the face, but it won’t make a bit of difference unless we act.

How uninvolved are we as young people, you ask? Extremely uninvolved. In fact, according to data published by The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE): “The US Census recently released the data from its November 2014 voting survey…According to our analysis of the CPS, 19.9 percent of 18- to 29-years old cast ballots in the 2014 elections… This was the lowest rate of youth turnout recorded in the CPS in the past forty years… The proportion of young people who said that they were registered to vote (46.7%) was also the lowest over the past forty years.”

Is this real life? Unfortunately, yes. As young people who will be working in and running our country, we’re not there when it counts. There are, of course, many speculations as to why this might be the case, but at the end of the day, the data is telling: WE’RE NOT THERE.

The moral of the story? Get off your ass and go vote in this upcoming election, and be involved in some small way, even if it’s just doing a little bit of inquiry. We live in an age where information is incredibly easy to get a hold of, so here is a little advice guide for those of you who feel like politics is too hard to get into:

  1. Go to www.isidewith.com
  2. Take the (very quick) quiz. It’ll ask you about your opinions on certain political matters. Answer the questions according to your beliefs.
  3. Choose the candidate that best aligns with your views.
  4. Register to vote when it’s time, which you can do on campus.
  5. VOTE!!!