Just days away from Election Day, many women have on TikTok have hinted that they’re voting for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, while their parents are voting for Republican nominee Donald Trump. As part of the trend, each video shows social media users with a piece of paper in hand as they leave their houses to go vote.
"POV, [on my way] to cancel out my Trump-loving husband’s vote in a swing state,” she said, along with a blue heart emoji and an American flag emoji.
I can’t really see how this is different from anything except that it is an online movement. There have always been slogans, campaigns, and movements to get people motivated to vote. This particular movement is helpful to motivate people who might feel that their vote isn’t significant, as it helps them to think of it in concrete terms as a chess move against their MAGA loved one. I don’t see why that is so stupid. It seems like hating it is more of a knee-jerk reaction against people who use TikTok. While I dislike TikTok myself, this seems like one of the weakest examples of why it’s bad.
I think people are taking issue with calling this act of normal voting “a TikTok trend” as if TikTok deserves the credit for inspiring the youngsters. It would be better if the news media used platform-agnostic terms with social media to avoid promoting their brands. “Young Americans use social media to organize voters” etc