Why Millennials Aren't Showing Out in the Polls Recap

Griffin Hayes, a Michigan State University sophomore, addressed the widespread cynicism of his peers. “There’s a lot of cynical thoughts about people saying, you know, things like ‘my vote doesn’t count,’" he said. After experiencing everything from 9/11, prolonged and televised wars to the Great Recession and government lockouts, this cynicism has led to 43 percent of Millennials saying it did not matter who was elected because “Washington was broken,” according to a survey conducted by Harvard’s Institute of Politic. Hannah Rakow, also a sophomore at MSU, believes that along with cynicism, lack of investment plays a role in why her fellow Millennials aren't voting. Those in the older generations do their research, whereas Millennials aren’t as informed and “just don’t care as much,” said Rakow. LewAllen also took note of this. “I just think they’re not at a point in their lives because of age where they feel like it’s necessary for them to turn out. In other words when you get older, when you get a family, when you’re established in your career, when you’re paying taxes…all those things, you want to do what you can to affect whatever change you think there should be relative to political leadership," he said.

Why Millennials Aren't Showing Out in the Polls Preview

Millennial voters have significantly lower numbers at the polls compared to other generational populations, according to a study by New America. In the 2012 presidential election, despite making up 23 percent of the overall voting population, only about half of Millennials actually voted. There are many possible reasons for this. Dave LewAllen, a weekend news anchor at Channel 7 WXYZ Detroit who has covered elections for years, noticed that the type of election matters. “The thing we notice most…as it relates to age of voter, [sic] younger people are much more excited and energized by a presidential race…than you get for local elections or even statewide elections,” he said. He wasn't wrong; according to International Business Times, only 21.3 percent of Millennials voted in the 2014 midterm elections. So, why else aren't Millennials getting out and voting in elections? According to a couple of Millennials, it has a lot to do with cynicism and lack of investment.  

Fake ID Use and Greek Life Recap

Social pressures and pack mentality play a lot into why members of Greek life may feel the need to get fake IDs according to Macomb Community College psychology professor Paulina Multhaupt. Though she acknowledges Greek life "creates a sense of community and connectedness," she also says because of age and development, it can lead to conformity. "In the teenage years when sense of self isn't fully developed yet, people gravitate towards others and often times are influenced by what the group is doing and they conform and go along with the group; whether or not they think it’s a good idea, they just have a tendency to do so,” Multhaupt said. The not fully developed sense of self coupled with human nature's social tendencies and influence of the group can play directly into why younger Greek life students, like Petkovic, feel the need to follow their older peers to the bars or the liquor stores by purchasing a fake ID.

Fake ID Use and Greek Life Preview

According to a study done by public health professors, fake ID use increased by 3.7 percent amongst students who indicated they joined or were thinking about joining Greek life. With such a large jump in the percentage of fake ID use in this particular community, it seems it's become part of the norm for Greeks. "When I joined Greek life was when I got a fake ID," said Lexi Petkovic, a Michigan State University sophomore who is a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority on campus. Social pressures within her sorority and FOMO (fear of missing out) played a huge roll in why Petkovic purchased her fake. “You start to go to socials and around 10 o’clock [at night], people start to head to the bars and then there was me, heading back to my dorm, and I felt really left out, so I got a fake,” she said.

Clean Bowl, Happy Salvatore Post

Once the cleaning was done, which took around thirty minutes, Salvatore swam back into his humble abode. "As tough as this process is, he looks so happy after so it's worth it," says Kapitanec. A Betta fish may be one of the easier first press to have, but it's still plenty of work. Hopefully next week, however, no mishaps with little Salvatore refusing to go back in the bowl will happen.

Clean Bowl, Happy Salvatore Preview

Once a week, Deanna Kapitanec, 19, begins the difficult process of cleaning her fish's bowl. Her fish, Salvatore, does not make the job easy on her. After the difficult process of moving him to his pseudo-bowl, Kapitanec begins scrubbing the dirty bowl with regular dish soap and hot water. Once that's done, she begins to fill up Salvatore's bowl to around 74 degrees, which is healthy for a normal Betta fish. However, before he gets put back in, she must use her fish purifier  to make sure the water is clean enough for little Salvatore.