Young People Are Smarter, More Politically Lethargic Than Ever

There’s a lot that’s worth mentioning from a recent study by the Pew Research Center on 18-29 year-old Americans, or “Millenials.” We respect our elders and believe their generation is superior to ours. We’re into multiple modes of self-expression (Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and tattoos are commonplace). We are history’s first “always connected” generation, compulsively updating and multi-tasking. We have unprecedented access to information.

And yet we hold a disenchanted view of politics — specifically, of Barack Obama’s politics. According to the study, half of Millenials (who were overwhelmingly Obama supporters during the 2008 campaign) say that the president “has failed to change the way Washington works, which had been the central promise of his candidacy.” Of these, three in ten blame Obama himself, while more than half blame his opponents and the broader political process.

How to explain this data? One method of analysis would involve drawing a logical line between access to information and a cynical viewpoint: the more we see, the less we want to look. This theory, aside from not exactly boding well for denizens of the political blogosphere, carries a message of exhausted political realism. We tend to “cast a wary eye on human nature.” Knowledge is not power; it is helplessness.

Still, we are on track to become the most educated generation in American history –“a trend driven largely by the demands of a modern knowledge-based economy, but most likely accelerated in recent years by the millions of 20-somethings enrolling in graduate schools, colleges or community colleges in part because they can’t find a job.” Shouldn’t that count for something?

Like any good Pew study, this one produces more questions than answers. “The new face of America,” though more diverse than before, is bent into a perpetual frown when it comes to the workings of Washington. We are more liberal, but also more distrusting of President Obama. We are better educated, but seemingly less willing to convert knowledge into action.

Paradoxical findings for a paradoxical generation, it seems.