A Lost Generation? Not Quite.

Young Americans have lost interest in world affairs. With the right methods, they can regain it.

Last year, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released a survey revealing a stark generational gap in American beliefs of global engagement.  Compared to 88% of Baby Boomer (born 1946-1964) Americans surveyed, only 56% of Generation Z (born 1997-2012) Americans described themselves as “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in international affairs news.  This trend is confirmed by the data stating that while 73% and 62% of Baby Boomers defined Russian and Chinese territorial ambitions, respectively, as a critical threat to the vital interests of the United States, only 47% and 38% of respective Zoomers felt the same.  Finally, while only 26% of Boomer Americans felt that the United States would be better off staying out of world affairs, an outright majority- 52%- of Zoomers concurred with the idea of an American retreat.  For someone like me, for whom world affairs are what I live and breathe by every day, these results are highly alarming.

It is not hard to see why such a generational gap exists.  I have heard stories from Baby Boomers of nuclear attack drills where children were forced to jump under their desks.  While it seems unlikely that a mere wooden desk can protect a child from the blast waves and radioactive fallout of a Soviet Tsar Bomba, these drills clearly left a lasting mark on Baby Boomers.  Even if hostile powers are thousands of miles away, the threat feels very real for them.  For Zoomers, the situation is quite different.  Having grown up in an era where endless war and insurgency in the Middle East cost the US Treasury at least $4 trillion, younger Americans have seen that war is an extremely expensive proposition.  Furthermore, these Middle Eastern conflicts made plausible the argument that far from deterring aggression, American military deployments aggravate overseas disputes or least fail to resolve them.

While we can acknowledge legitimate debate about the merits of global engagement and its effect on the United States, what is not legitimate to me is the other factor behind young Americans’ lagging interest in international affairs- social media.  It is no secret that thanks to social media the attention span of Zoomers everywhere (not just in the United States) is shorter than those of their parents and grandparents.  This writer, a millennial, has sadly not been spared from this trend, which has been confirmed by multiple scientific studies.  If your life is scrolling away through dancing videos for hours on end, it’s no wonder that you may struggle to finish an in-depth article from a respected journal such as Foreign Affairs or Chatham House.  Today, if a social media-addicted teen sees anything related to foreign affairs, it is most likely in the realm of climate change alarmism or the cause célèbre of social justice warriors- the Palestinian cause. 

There is no doubt that millions of young Americans are far more concerned and passionate about those two issues than any of the sinister schemes concocted in Beijing, Moscow, or Tehran.  And this situation is exactly to their liking- particularly Beijing’s.  While social media has contributed to youth passion and activism on climate issues, the conflict in the Middle East has shown me that TikTok can be a legitimate national security threat.  In case you didn’t know, TikTok is owned by ByteDance- a Chinese company.  And in Xi Jinping’s China, every Chinese company operates under the direct supervision of the Chinese Communist Party.  Since Hamas attacked Israel and Israel retaliated with fire and brimstone against the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, TikTok has been flooded with videos harshly criticizing Israel, even to the extent of calling for Israel’s complete destruction.  While I want to make clear that I find Israel's military conduct reprehensible, I cannot help but notice that TikTok’s stance on the Middle East conflict neatly lines up with the perspective of Chinese state media.

So, what can we do about the sorry state of international affairs knowledge among young Americans?  I wanted to preface that of course not all young Americans fit into this negative stereotype, but many do. However, there are still steps that can be taken.  Concerns about user privacy, and potential Chinese violations of it have led congress to consider a drastic step- banning TikTok altogether.  While the legislation has bipartisan support, including President Biden, such an extreme step would undoubtedly raise free speech concerns.  A Montana judge issued in November a scathing verdict blocking that state’s attempt, the first of its kind in the nation, to cross the TikTok Rubicon.  A federal ban would almost certainly meet similar judicial review.  Thus, while we may be frustrated that some (but of course not all) teens and 20-somethings are plunging deeper into mindless Pro-CCP misinformation, we can take solace that there is some hope for America’s youth. I remain optimistic that there are still thousands of young Americans who also care about what happens overseas.

To assuage both national security and free speech concerns, we have little choice but to work through the media that are already available.  While I admit I don’t use it and probably never will, we cannot be afraid to reach out to our young people through TikTok.  Back in January, I met a former US Ambassador to Cambodia, Charles Ray.  During his lecture in a downtown Nashville high rise, I had a light bulb moment.  Back in 2003, riots broke out in Cambodia against Thai-owned factories over an anti-Cambodian insult spewed by a Thai soap opera star.  These factories were critical to the spring 2003 line of clothes for the famous retail chain The Gap.  With production ground to a halt, the spring line was delayed for months.  Ambassador Ray spoke about how he used this example to appeal to high school students in Texas.  The point of the story- the tools we rely on for our daily lives are always at the mercy of events overseas.  Any conflict or bout of unrest can delay or even derail exports to the United States.  

It should not be difficult to input that sort of information into a 60 or even 30-second TikTok or YouTube video.  We first need to weed out the CCP-aligned misinformation that has seeped onto those forums.  While old-school purists like me may sigh, we must work with the realities of 2024.  We cannot treat our young people with disdain, but instead build bridges with them and mold them into the types of leaders and innovators our country needs to succeed.  While we have a mountain to climb, I must remain optimistic, as our future prosperity ultimately depends on our youth.