From Endless Thread: Gen Z wants you to take political action, one TikTok at a time
WIRED Politics Lab
WIRED
4.2 • 244 Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gen Z is over it. The youngest generation of adults is inheriting a climate crisis, the ongoing fallout from a global pandemic, a polarized political landscape, and a tenuous economic reality. And many Gen Z members, a generation more likely to identify as progressive than conservative, are ready for something to give.
Enter: Gen Z for Change — a youth-led non-profit that brands itself as, "the place where the creator economy and progressive politics intersect on social media." The group leverages a hundreds-deep network of social media creators to spread calls to action over TikTok. They've also pulled on the programming expertise within their team to develop a caché of semi-automatic tools that take the guesswork out of engaging with their political agenda.
Their latest tool, "Ceasefire Now!!" takes these efforts one step further — resulting in, by Gen Z for Change's count, two million emails calling for a ceasefire in Gaza hitting the inboxes of elected representatives in Washington every day.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey listeners, this is Leah. I'd like to introduce you to an episode from a podcast we think |
| 0:07.8 | you might like called Endless Thread. It's made at WBUR, Boston's NPR station. Hosts Ben |
| 0:13.9 | Brock Johnson and Amory Siebertson dig into the internet's vast and curious ecosystem of online |
| 0:18.9 | communities to find untold histories and unsolved mysteries. |
| 0:22.8 | This episode introduces us to a Gen Z-led nonprofit called Gen Z for Change. |
| 0:27.7 | It brands itself as the place where the creator economy and progressive politics intersect |
| 0:32.0 | on social media. Their latest tool, Ceasefire Now, takes these efforts one step further. |
| 0:37.6 | The organization says 2 million emails calling for Ceasefire in Gaza are hitting the inboxes of elected representatives in Washington every single day. |
| 0:45.3 | We hope you enjoy it. Take a listen. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. |
| 0:59.9 | Producer Caitlin Harrop, bringer of tunnel girl stories, purveyor of accounts we don't yet know of. |
| 1:08.3 | You are back on the TikTok beat. |
| 1:10.4 | Yes, I am. |
| 1:12.0 | And what pray tell have you brought endless thread today? |
| 1:15.7 | Today, I bring you a story of political influence, online hijinks, of mass mobilization, |
| 1:23.2 | and it's all from a place then where I spend a lot of time. |
| 1:26.7 | You do not. |
| 1:27.9 | And that would be, should we say it together? |
| 1:30.5 | TikTok. |
| 1:31.9 | That's right. |
| 1:33.1 | But it's not at all in the way you might expect. |
| 1:36.8 | I like this way of describing it because there is some mischief in this story. |
| 1:40.6 | But there's also some good old fashion right into your congressperson to get them |
... |
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