Many believe that younger generations lean towards more liberal ideology than older generations. As the political landscape of a society shifts and changes over time, there are new issues for each generation to confront and try to fix. As Generation Z battles a warming climate, restrictions on the expression of gender and sexual identity and growing tension around immigration policy, the older generations tend to see Gen Z as possessing a leftist agenda.
However, since Trump’s first administration, Gen Z males have become increasingly conservative. 62% of Millennial males aged 18 to 24 years old in 2008 voted for Former President Barack Obama and 34% for Former Arizona Senator John McCain. In 2012, 53% of Millennial males aged 18 to 24 voted for President Obama and 42% for Senator Mitt Romney. 2016 was the first election Gen Z could vote in, and a poll conducted by Pew Research Center indicated that 51% of males from ages 18 to 34 preferred Former Senator Hillary Clinton.
However, overall, men of all ages voted a 53% majority for President Donald Trump. In 2020, 56% of males aged 18 to 24 voted for Former President Joe Biden and 41% for President Trump. In the 2024 presidential election, 55% of males aged 18 to 24 voted for President Trump over Former Vice President Harris. Why has there been this sudden shift in more young males moving from the Democratic party to the Republican party?
One theory I have ties this new phenomenon to the advancement and increased social media usage among Gen Z. In the last 10 years, social media has become part of Gen Z’s everyday life. My younger brother, Aiden, who is 17 years old, told me that on his TikTok For You Page, he often sees content from conservative male influencers even though he does not actively search for that content.
I wanted to now if this happens to many Gen Z males and if this could be why there has been a surge in conservatism amongst them. I asked my brother, Aiden, questions about his TikTok For You Page to gauge how extreme the content was. I asked him how often he sees content from self-identified conservative male creators, and he said he sees these videos 3 to 5 times per week on the app.
He said he only sees this content on TikTok and no other social media platforms such as Instagram or X. When asked what kind of topics are discussed, he said, “They mostly talk about the economy,” and that he typically sees content from the creators Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro.
I was curious if any of the content he saw had hostile rhetoric about minority groups in it, and he said he has seen some of these men share harmful stereotypes and speak negatively about women. Aiden also asked some of his friends if they see content from conservative males without actively searching for it, and they said it is a regular occurrence on their For You Pages as well.
His friends reported seeing many other male teenagers post content praising President Trump and publicly supporting him. Typically, the TikTok algorithm tries to show us content that we have engaged with and liked, so it is interesting for this problem to be recurrent if they are not engaging with the content.
Since I was unfamiliar with some content creators Aiden told me he often sees, I decided to watch some of their videos to see what they were like. Charlie Kirk, known for debating people, focuses most of his content around debating those who share opposing views to his. Some of the conservative stances he advocates for on his page include gender and sexual identity, the economy, abortion rights and environmental issues. Most of the thumbnails on the videos have bold titles that include aggressive and defamatory language directed toward liberals to grab the viewers’ attention.
Two videos that stood out to me were recently posted on his page, one with a thumbnail that said “Gender is a Scam” posted on February 7. Kirk says in the video that “Gender doesn’t exist, only sex exists and you must reject this idea of gender,” and then proceeds to confuse gender identity with sexual identity, claiming that “Your sexual identity, it does not change, it can’t change with surgery or with drugs.” In a video posted 4 days ago, Kirk is trying to push the narrative that women use abortion as a form of birth control. This is a harmful stereotype used to depict women who have made the decision to have an abortion as careless when they are making the decision that is best for them.
I then watched some of Ben Shapiro’s TikToks, which I have seen in the media before. His videos centered around topics similar to Kirks’s, and the two share the same general views. A video of his posted on February 11 was about the new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who issued an order that paused the admittance of individuals who have experienced gender dysphoria from entering military service.
Shapiro says in the video that the order makes sense since “you can’t enter the military if you have a clinical depression diagnosis. So thinking you’re a member of the opposite sex, that should probably be a barrier to entry.” What Shapiro said perpetuates hateful narratives against queer people and feeds into existing online transphobia. In a video posted on January 22, Shapiro defended Elon Musk after Musk was under fire for doing what appeared to be the Nazi Salute after giving a speech at an inauguration rally. That salute has a profoundly tragic history behind it, and defending such an act should not be done lightly.
After watching some of these videos, much of the content concerned me. The content posted by Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro perpetuates harmful stereotypes that many people have been working to get rid of. It is worrisome that this content is being pushed out onto people’s feeds who aren’t actively looking for it.
If this is happening to many Gen Z males regularly, then it is likely to affect their political views and ideological beliefs. While everyone has the right to their own political opinions, a lot of the content I saw negatively depicted large groups of people, and hate speech should never be allowed on social media platforms.
People must report hateful content when they see it so that it gets deleted. The political climate of the current world may feel heavy at times, but big groups of people are fighting for positive change, and one day, it is bound to happen.