College Democrats and Student Activism, a Community Profile
When I looked at the FSU College Democrats’ Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages, the first thing I was greeted with was the smiling face of someone dressed in blue. Many of their posts include pictures of their members at different events. There’s one post of a group of kids dressed in blue, at the “Out of the Darkness” walk for suicide prevention. Another is of some higher up members surrounded by laptops, pens, and sticky notes, celebrating the election of a democrat in House District 114, captioned “We managed to make to make over 200 calls to help Javier Fernandez get out the vote!” Below that, someone’s responded “You guys rock.” There’s an abundance of posts advertising reasons to call your senators, and a lot of events where they group up to do this together. Many are simply updates on policy actions being taken under our current administration (if you can call our administration “simple”). There are also plenty of posts encouraging people to vote.
There’s a series of posts on their Instagram page called the “Dem Spotlight.” Here, they post about different members and what they do within the club. One member’s spotlight talks about his involvement with the gun control caucus, another with the Progressive caucus. Another girl under the spotlight, Kathryn, is a FSU student senate member. In all these posts, the captions praise their involvement with the club and their involvement outside of it as well. Some even lobby at the state level. The students who are featured in these posts are all very active. The pictures are a little all over the place. Some are in graduation caps, some are vacation pictures, some are posing with state representatives. They don’t appear to always praise the actual lobbyists. every post is made with the goal of encouraging being politically active, whether these people plan to enter politics or not.
Another set of posts, on their twitter, is a set of responses to the FCC’s vote on net neutrality. Most of these posts are actually retweets from different accounts, a mix of corporations like Netlfix and mostly teens. A tweet posted by Netflix reads, “We’re disappointed in the decision to gut #NetNeutrality protections that ushered in an unprecedented era of innovation, creativity & civic engagement.” The next tweet features a screenshot from the tv show Parks and Recreation, with the caption “saving net neutrality like:” This mix of youthful humor, and the acknowledgement of the seriousness of the situation is a theme that reoccurs throughout the pages. They’re passionate about what they write about, but they also never discount the importance of people their age getting involved.
There’s also quite a few posts reminding members that representatives and gubernatorial candidates are coming in to speak. I feel there’s a real importance to this. In my personal interview with him, Nathan Davis, the VP, told me that they’ll often have politicians come in to do Q&As, forums, and panels with students. One was the Women in Politics panel, where women in the Florida political community came in to talk about their experiences. To me, it shows how the College Dems work to play an active role in the political process, and make an effort to stay updated and informed.
Activism is of course an extremely important and routinely occurring theme. You’ll see tons of Facebook events encouraging the attendance of different rallies. One is a counter-protest called titled “Stand Up to White Supremacy.” Another is a set of tweets from the March For Our Lives at the Florida Capitol. The pictures are very pointed, with everyone standing together for one cause. Throughout their pages, the Dems consistently encourage students to participate in rallies like these one. You’re always reminded of the importance of taking action, and College Dems gives students a place where they know they are standing side by side with people they know and who care about the same issues.
Overall, the messages in the College Democrats’ social media pages might seem pretty jumbled, but scrolling through the underlying theme is pretty clear. When looking at their pages, one is always reminded of how important it is to take part in the political process, even now when many are so disillusioned and feel like their voice doesn’t matter. More subtly, one is reminded of the importance of young people taking place in this process as well. From Nathan, “politics doesn’t have to be reserved for the older population,” politics isn’t the dry topic that people think it is. From the link to a buzzfeed quiz titled “Which Florida College Democrat Executive Board Member Are You?” to the phone banks to defend DACA or spread the word about democratic senators, college students are reminded that they too have a place in the political sphere and their action is both important and necessary.
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