Do people know what's happening? That 70 million who were too busy to vote on election day because they were on TikTok

[Eliot Rosewater]

Do they even know what’s happening?

Since we do know that almost nobody watches MSNBC or CNN or for that matter really FAUX news, do they know what’s happening, I’m asking?

If you don’t understand what I mean by watching, just google how many people are watching any of these channels at one time, it’s a tiny number.

[themaguffin]

1. tiktok is very problematic on several levels.

[leftstreet]

2. So the people watching cable news gave us Trump?

wut?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

3. These are the same people...

...who never vote.

The higher turnout in 2020 was an anomaly for the last 50 or more years, so I'm not too surprised that it dropped back down to a "normal" range in 2024.

I wish it would be higher, but the fact is that nearly half of the eligible voters in this country just aren't interested in voting.

[Silent Type]

4. I think a lot of voters just don't believe it matters. That's dangerous.

[Eliot Rosewater]

5. I just worry that some of us who are engaged believe that what we are seeing

On cable news that most people are seeing it.

Almost nobody is watching cable news, we are obviously but we are a tiny minority.

I don’t know where the vast majority of the United States of America gets its news but it’s not on MSNBC CNN and Faux. If 70 million people tuned in every night to MSNBC and watched Rachel Maddow, probably all this disappears but of course that does not happen like it did in the Walter Cronkite days.

[womanofthehills]

7. From podcasts and X

One million Americans are on X - mostly under age 45.

I think Tucker has the second largest podcast after Rogan. They can get from 10 million to 40 million views. Lots of podcasts have between one and two million viewers like “Breaking Points” with Kristal Ball & Saagar. I like Breaking Points because they cover news of the day in detail.

GROK - General Podcast Trends: In the U.S., 55% of the population (about 158 million people) listen to podcasts monthly, with 40% (115 million) listening weekly

[liberalmediaaddict]

6. Many have no clue how or where to vote

I've heard that many times from Americans of all ages.

The only election they pay attention to is the Presidential election every 4 years. Even then most don't actually vote because they're unsure where their voting precinct is. Or they don't want to take off work. Or can't make it to the polls before 6pm.

It's so much easier to doom scroll and post negativity on social media than to physically turn out every November and
vote. And with early voting there's no long lines.