Introduction
On Nov. 3, 2026, every American voter over the age of 18 has the opportunity to elect 435 members of the House of Representatives and 35 members of Senate, affecting the balance of power in Congress and influencing the trajectory for the rest of the presidency. Midterm elections are a powerful foresight into the remaining half of the term, and are crucial to the policies that affect us at every level of government. Ballot Pedia has polled voter turnout from 2002-2024. The average ballots cast for midterm elections, ranging from all political parties, is 63.9%. However, 70% of those voters range from 45-64 years-old nationally. Young voters do not typically vote. According to The Civics Center, in 2024, only 44% of 18-year-olds were registered. That means more than 2 million 18-year-olds are left out of the presidential and midterm election process.
The Media literacy crisis amongst the youth
With the rapid integration of social media and artificial intelligence into everyday life, large corporations have made it a competition to capture, not just the dollars, but the attention of consumers. Thus, media literacy seems to have turned into a rare commodity in today’s climate. The National Association for Media Literacy Education asserts the term as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.” Social media only perpetuates this phenomenon of a nose-diving literacy rate, with the majority of the algorithms pushing sensationalist, short-form content. This is especially prevalent during election season. The Harvard Kennedy School’s Misinformation Report found that, during the 2024 U.S. Presidential election cycle, “toxic” videos, meaning including disrespectful language, relating to the election or immigration received higher engagement. Moreover, 77% of the 51,680 videos analyzed were categorized as partisan.
However, purely looking at national data can convolute the main issue at hand, as this can be seen locally amongst high schoolers as well. Jalen Oben, Student District Advisory [SDAC] chairperson, is a senior at Newbury Park High School [NPHS]. He provides a first hand perspective on the current state of the news cycle.
“I feel like I’m the only person I know at my age who actually reads the news instead of getting snippets from social media. Even on social media, some of my friends aren’t getting them from the real news sites. They’re getting them from political commentators or things like that,” Oben said.
The fact that anyone can get current political information in just a few swipes is a miracle. But without fact checking information, it can easily backfire. Seana Mekari, IB English teacher at NPHS, comments on the peril that comes with online influencers taking on the role of journalists.
“There is no number one level of credibility or expected journalistic credibility. It doesn’t mean that nobody has credibility or integrity, but there is no universal standard code that anyone is held to, which I think is problematic. Then in addition to that, we’re getting things in sound bites, and you’re not getting a complete story. […] Reading every version of the story and all of the different perspectives helps shape our understanding of what truth means,” Mekari said.
The effects of partisan information on voting
It is often difficult for people, especially teens and young adults, to distinguish truth from myth or exaggeration. This age group is especially vulnerable to misinformation because they often receive their information from the social media they consume. However, this content often prioritizes engagement rather than truth, allowing false information to spread.World Issues teacher Cindy Wade speaks about how this aspect of social media reinforces biases and contributes to polarization.
“You get stuck in a bubble because their algorithms are not really created to inform you; they’re created to keep you online,” Wade said. “ They’re not telling you both sides of issues; they’re only telling you the one side, and then since that’s all you hear, [it becomes] your only perspective.”
Wade explains that when people primarily rely on social media instead of credible sources for research, they often develop an incomplete or even distorted sense of political issues. This has consequences beyond individual users, since, en masse, they contribute to public democracy. Widespread misinformation negatively impacts this, and it is a noticeable pattern throughout history.
According to AP world history teacher Joseph Calaba, one instance of misinformation significantly affecting a large-scale voting process is the Election of 1828. The campaigns between John Quincey Adams and Andrew Jackson carried numerous personal attacks and false accusations, which swayed voters and exemplified how misinformation can shape political discourse and promoted hyper partisanship.
Therefore, recognizing misinformation and conducting adequate research is therefore essential towards making reasoned decisions, especially when casting votes.
Youth participation in voting and politics
Many political issues, such as immigration policies, gas prices, women’s rights, and even locally, with the downtown Thousand Oaks Development, are currently taking place and are not only affecting older citizens of the United States, but simultaneously impacting students. Despite the younger generations being portrayed as apathetic and disinterested politically, the age group 18-29 is recognizing the need for political involvement and is taking initiative.
Exploring America’s youth involvement in midterm elections and politics, CIRCLE (Tufts) and When We All Vote, conducted a national survey and compiled their data. According to the survey, in the age group 18-29, the results concluded that 57% of young adults were extremely likely to vote in 2026, and 62% of the youth population are voting in hopes of making a political difference.
As young adults take on the task of becoming politically involved, educators encourage students to do the difficult research that comes with formulating a perspective. Cindy Wade has been a history teacher of World History and Contemporary World Issues at NPHS for 22 years, and is head of the History department. Wade provides a perspective as to why teenagers should be politically involved or educated.
“Teenagers’ lives are totally affected by politics, whether you’re very interested or not interested in it; the laws surrounding schools [or] driving [laws] can be linked often to some form of laws or system or politics,” Wade said. “Since we’re a democracy and we’re going to ask people to take part, it’s really important that they understand our system and that they are involved politically, so they can make informed decisions.”
As teenagers begin to cross into the realm of political interest, the media drives their perspectives and involvement.
“The majority of high school students- they like the snippets of politics. They like what makes the media [or] the big things, but they don’t really know how political systems work. But I would say that people are interested in politics because I think that the majority of high schoolers understand the impact that politics has on them,” Oben said.
While sensationalized news is intensified by social media, reaching the hands of teenagers, there are benefits in how its intertwined nature can create youth political involvement.
“The push and pull with social media is that there are a lot of negatives, but there’s also a lot of positives to it. It can put you in touch with information. It’s just how you use it,” Wade said. “If you’re using it as a tool, you can find a lot of information about political issues [and] about candidates. You can find out when there’s going to be a question-and-answer session or something that you can be a part of. So if you use social media as a tool, it can really link you and get you more involved politically.”
In becoming more politically involved or informed, there are now resourceful websites and social media accounts that are compiling credible information about national and global issues. For instance, the website factcheck.org debunks both misleading and false Republican and Democratic claims, providing credible resources and information. Another resource is Snopes.com, where the website researches rumors in the political and entertainment world, providing evidence on why claims may be true or false. Matthew LaRocca, Social Science teacher at NPHS, believes that in order to become politically well-rounded, research of both sides should take place.
“There are many news sources like Ground News and others that will cover an issue from multiple different perspectives and show different sources on how they cover this issue,” LaRocca said. “So I would say consult a wide variety of sources and don’t just rely on TikTok or one source to give you all the information.”
Ground News is a website that provides sources, with a percentage of how polarized they may be. When clicking on a topic, it will list sources that have both conservative, centrist, and liberal perspectives.
Conclusion
The path to the 2026 midterm elections shows many obstacles, where younger people are voting less compared to older generations, and misinformation on social media and other platforms are on the rise. Although this is nothing new, many people believe that social media algorithms and artificial intelligence are pushing misinformation onto younger people. However, when students actively search and seek out verified information, social media can change from a source of distraction and misinformation to a platform for civic participation.
However, media literacy is a necessary tool to jump over these hurdles and engage with news from these platforms critically. While the term may seem unfamiliar, it is purely analytical skills that all high school students learn in their English classes. Mekari urges the youth to question all information they consume online and do further research.
“Taking anything at face value the first time that you hear it [is] a mistake. I think that the most important thing we need to do is understand that what we’re getting often through social media is a hot take, and we need to not be satisfied with hot takes,” Mekari said.
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