Generation Y. The Millennium Generation. Echo Boomers. These are all terms used to describe America’s current youth born in the 1980-1994. We are the fastest growing population, ranging from ages 5-20. We are large enough to rival the baby boomers in size, and the most diverse in American history. Led by the new technology and the internet, it is no wonder that we are a visual generation that prides itself on the media, blindly following sources such as Seventeen Magazine or Sports Illustrated. Being mesmerized by Facebook, text messaging and Twitter, we have forgotten the trivial art of communication outside of the virtual world.

Moreover, America’s youth will make up one third of the electorate in 2015. For that reason, it is vital, in order to revitalize our crumbing economy, that this generation be active, aware and informed of the world around them. This will ultimately make the future leaders of this country more politically savvy.

Too many young people have a lack of interest in the world, and it is a problem that needs to be addressed more thoroughly. When students don’t know what is happening on Wall Street, or who the Republican candidates are, the problem at hand becomes more severe.

Teenagers are too interested in who the American Idol winners are rather than the Presidential winners. It is time for America’s youth to get more engaged and take control of their future. Instead of watching MTV or going on Facebook, teenagers can tune onto CBS or go to CNN.com. While America’s youth sits back complacently, college tuitions go up, unemployment sky rockets and troops in the Middle East continue to the risk their lives for this country defending the rights of what this country built upon.

Let’s make it worth something.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

BARACK OBAMA, speech, Feb. 5, 2008