It's OK to Get Involved

It's roughly 10:00 on a Sunday night following a Patriots victory over the Jets. So naturally, you would most likely assume that I have far too many words to write lamenting on the pitiful Patriots secondary and inability to win fourth quarters. But instead, I have something else on my mind tonight. After all, I have all week to talk about the Patriots, or better yet, avoid talking about the Patriots.

Instead, I wanted to turn my attention to something that has absolutely nothing to do with sports. Tomorrow night, the third and final Presidential Debate will air live from Lynn University in Florida. For those who follow me on twitter, you are probably aware that I've attempted to offer commentary on the debates, although I try to keep it somewhat lighthearted. If you don't follow me on twitter, you might want to visit @Mark_Chiarelli. After all, I love shameless self-promotion.

Now I'm not someone who will ever try to impose my political views on someone else. I'm an 18 year old freshman at college who's worked two retail jobs and lived a fairly easy life in a Massachusetts suburb. It's not exactly fair for a kid who has extremely limited real-world experience to preach his "beliefs" to others. After all, I've got plenty to learn and plenty time to do that.

One of the beauties of social media is the ability to share opinions and thoughts in a matter of seconds. When  another teenager attempts to impose their political beliefs on others via Facebook or Twitter, I usually laugh it off. But I've also noticed a troubling trend among many people close to the same age as me within the past two weeks. For as many tweets offering an opinion on the debate or the Presidential Election, there's an opposing tweet criticizing kids for offering opinions. So many times I've seen a tweet complaining of political tweets from other students or kids complaining that they simply don't care.

Now I may be missing something, but am I the only person who sees a problem with this?

I understand that it's not enjoyable for others to tell you who to vote for, or arrogantly talk about issues as if they have all the answers in the world. But what's the harm in back and forth debate? Why is there such an issue if you want to offer opinion on what's taking place on your television screen?

For those who feel as if you're somehow going to convince others to stop talking about politics because "you don't want to see it," you're simply out of luck. Trying to restrict the opinions on policies and subject matter which effect our daily life is an immature, narrow viewpoint on "politics." In my opinion, the more discussion, the better. The more kids who try to get involved and educated on the policies offered in this selection the better, because one day these issues will influence us all equally.

Listen, I'm not saying that kids across the globe need to hibernate in a world encyclopedia for the next 24 hours to discuss the election. And maybe I'm totally wrong on this viewpoint, and I need to just stick to tweeting too much for my own good. But if you want to complain about seeing "tweets about politics on your timeline" instead of passive aggressive subtweeting and song lyrics, I'll proverbially show you the door. It's time more people take a proactive look at real life topics, because in four years, especially for college freshman, this could make or break your life moving forward.

Unfortunately, tomorrow night will roll around and we'll all probably see the same tweets from the same offenders. And that's OK, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however narrow-minded it may be. But if you think you can escape something that affects the entire country, the entire world, by simply telling other people to stop tweeting, you're out of your mind.