By Taylor Alton Staff Writer

  This election season, Politicians, influencers, and social media applications nationwide are putting in their best efforts to inspire those young voters to make their mark. Social media apps look a little different. Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Tiktok have all added features to their layouts that have to do with voting. For example, Instagram has introduced a new Voting Information Center. This can be accessed many ways from the app, one of which being by tapping on a tab attached to a celebrity’s post encouraging their audience to vote. The Voting Information Center is a very convenient way to find information about how to vote. It selects your state for you, and offers information about how exactly you can vote. On my Instagram account, the Voting Information Center has selected Texas for me, and gives me the dates regarding early voting, deadlines regarding mail-in ballots, places I can vote in person, and ways to check if I am registered to vote. All of these are relative to my location and very helpful for anyone who happens to be a first-time voter. In addition to these features, Instagram is making huge efforts to prevent misinformation about voting and the election. Instagram also offers cute and fun eye-catching stickers to post on stories and remind people to vote. Especially since social media platforms mainly consist of the younger generations, these informative new features are a great way to encourage young people to vote.

  In more efforts to encourage young people to vote, United States congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omar, took part in a Twitch Stream a couple of weeks ago where they played the very popular multiplayer game, Among Us. AOC had tweeted out, asking if anyone wanted to play the game with her to “get the vote out”. Numerous well-known Twitch streamers such as Pokimane, Myth, Disguised Toast, and Dr. Lupos, all reached out and agreed to play with her and representative Omar. A day later, these congresswomen set up their games and were ready to play. AOC’s Twitch stream “had a peak live viewership of well over 400,000 people” according to the Washington Post, which is said to be the third-highest in Twitch history. This extraordinary turnout not only due to Ocasio-Cortez’s already massive appeal to the younger generation but the fact that she and popular gamers were playing a very trendy game together. All throughout the three-hour stream, both congresswomen and even the gamers they played with, made sure to remind their audiences of how important it is to vote. They also take some time to briefly discuss political topics such as health-care, in a simple matter their primarily younger audiences could understand. Although not all of AOC’s 400,000 viewers are of the age to vote, providing this type of information is still vital when educating the younger communities about what is going on in America. All and all, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s and Ilhan Omar’s efforts as congresswomen to appeal to their audiences of young people, whether they can vote or not, was an amazing success.

  The turnout and usage of these two different methods of encouraging young people to vote may be successful, but we won’t know the final impact until Election Day comes. Until then make your voice heard, vote.