Extreme Millennial Makeover
Edition
In Michael D. Hais &
Morley Winograd’s Millennial
Makeover: MySpace, Youtube, and
the Future of American Politics,
the authors posit that
generational shifts in the
United States lead to political
realignments. According to them,
the millennial generation has
sparked a Democratic uprising
across the nation that should
last for the next four decades,
or until the next presumed
generational shift.
The book does a good job of
describing millennials and the
impetus behind generational
shifts. In the case of the
current shift, Hais and Winograd
believe the start of the current
economic crisis in September
2008 sparked millennials into
action and made them care more
deeply about the presidential
election and politics. Because
millennials tend to care about
civil issues, equality, and the
international community, their
political ideology tends to
support the positions of
Democratic candidates.
While it is true that young
voters were a key audience for
the presidential election, I
think it is too broad of a
generationalization to say that
social networking will
strengthen the Democratic Party
over time. Candidates and
political parties and movements
from all realms are increasingly
figuring out how to utilize
social networking to their
advantage, and as older
individuals join social
networking sites, it can’t be
assumed that the online
community is comprised of
millennials.
In
addition, Hais and Winograd
argue that social networking
grants everyone the opportunity
to let their opinions be heard,
and money is no longer a
necessity for political
candidates to find success
because they can reach such a
wide online audience. It might
be easy to idealize the
Internet, but one can’t forget
that the Obama campaign used
hundreds of millions of dollars
in a multi-channel strategy –
especially on a national level,
candidates have to use a
“surround sound” approach to
reach audiences without relying
solely on new media.
