BY: Matthew Wielk
Staff Reporter
Would a celebrity endorsement about voting and political campaigns make you more inclined to get involved?
Recently, celebrity Taylor Swift gave her thoughts on the upcoming midterm election. Swift is encouraging that people take the time to go out and vote through a post on Instagram. Her post received over 740,000 likes.
Junior Courtney O’Donnell said, “I think it’s nice to see celebrities trying to be involved and take a stand on voting. A lot of people don’t take advantage of the voting system, so if celebrities can influence them to do so, it can be beneficial.”
24 hours after Swift’s Instagram post there were up to 65,000 new voter registrations, according to Kamari Guthrie, in an exclusive interview with BuzzFeed News.
Junior Laura Dolan said, “I definitely do think that celebrities have influence on students going out to vote. When students see celebrities voting and encouraging others to vote, it makes them feel like voting is in some way making them more connected to those celebrities or feel like voting is cool.”
Taylor Swift is not the only celebrity using the power of social media to influence their fans to vote. Other celebrities like Chance the Rapper, Kanye West, and Rihanna are doing the same on their social media platforms.
Freshman Max Lionetti said, “I think celebrity endorsements help to get people involved in voting because they have such a huge influence on their fans. It creates an advantage to get people to take part in elections.”
In addition, Dolan said, “I think celebrities encouraging people to vote is a respectable way to utilize their platform to help create a positive change in our society. However, sometimes celebrities can overly push their own agenda onto their fans.”
Some students feel that celebrities over step their boundaries when influencing fans to vote.
“I feel like celebrities should not encourage people’s opinions and decisions,” said senior Amber Tischio. “It can lead them to change their own perspectives and that is what makes them who they are.” Celebrities often have thousands of followers on social media, because of the size of their audience their posts are widely spread.
Freshman Alex Rice said, “These celebrities are encouraging young people to vote. Celebrities, like Taylor Swift, are able to drive masses of young people to get involved.”
Midterm elections are coming up on Nov. 8 and some celebrities are pushing for their fans to get out and vote by using their powers of influence in the media.
“Students are heavily influenced by social media, so by celebrities posting on those platforms it can persuade them to consider voting,” said O’Donnell.
