For several years I’ve heard a common complaint about the Net Generation: they don’t care about anything that matters, they aren’t engaged with the world, and – importantly – that they don’t even bother to vote. While I won’t go into all of my responses to these often misguided attacks here, a critical point that I have made over and over is that the net gen is interested and engaged with what’s going on around the world, but “politics as usual” – attack ads, broadcast messaging, and everything else that comes with it – simply doesn’t resonate with them.

There’s really no way around it – these people want something different than what politicians have been offering. In turn, as this huge “echo” generation matures, I sensed not only was there a huge opportunity to engage them and help change the world for the better, but that the politician(s) that first did so might just position themselves for some “shocking” political wins. That time might be coming sooner rather than later.

While there are many articles popping up on this topic now, this San Francisco Chronicle report is one of the best – Appetite for change finally draws young voters to the polls. As most people know by now, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee scored big wins in Iowa, and it appears that the Net Gen played a big role. Some key stats: the number of under-30 Iowa caucus-goers tripled compared to 2004, and more than 57% of these young democratic voters supported Obama… and while that may not surprise many, the fact that Huckabee grabbed 40% of the Republican youth vote (double his closest competitor) might.

While this sub-30 group only accounted for 22% of democratic voters, and 11% of Republican, it appears to have had an impact. According to this Time Magazine analysis, the under-25 set alone gave Obama a net 17,000 vote gain, and he finished roughly 20,000 votes ahead of his challenger… throw in the 25 to 30 year olds and a pretty convincing case can be made that this age-group made quite an impact, which surprised many. Time was nice enough to link to this article they published before the vote, which captured the conventional wisdom nicely: campaign young, organize grey summarizes the concluding sentence in a detailed, and historically accurate, account of why the youth vote should not be counted on – particularly in Iowa.

There’s obviously still a long way to go in the election, but it’s going to be very, very interesting to watch how things change over the next few weeks, as a few key quotes from the articles linked to above attests to (and make sure you read the final two paragraphs of Appetite for Change to see some of the tactical reactions from various politicians to what’s happening, and also see Clinton looks to youth for New Hampshire rebound). At minimum, it appears that the possibility that the youth vote may be more important this time is having a positive effect on the political process that should benefit voters of all ages – suffice to say, it’s not only the Net Gen that are looking for change right now.

Appetite for change:

“It was a huge, huge boost of confidence to see that young voters in Iowa literally won the election for Obama. From a recruiting standpoint, it makes his candidacy much more real to people. You can say he’s the youth candidate and people will go, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ But now they can see it” – Menno Goedman, Obama’s 22-year-old director of student outreach in California

The Obama campaign ‘had a candidate who spoke to the issues that mattered to young people and they combined online outreach with on-the-ground, in-person contact’

“At trainings we ask people why they’re here. You’d expect them to talk about the war and the economy and health care, and they do. But most of them say that they want to restore America’s standing in the world. It’s kind of surprising.” – Mather Martin, Clinton’s 25-year-old Northern California Field Director

Obama’s Youth Vote Triumphs

“Conventional wisdom has a name for candidates who rely on the youth vote: loser. Clearly, this was different.” – Michael McDonald, an expert on voter turnout at George Mason University.

Clinton Looks to youth for New Hampshire Rebound

Taking newfound aim at young voters, Clinton told supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire, she wanted to help give “every generation, especially young Americans, a chance to live their own dream and hopes.” By contrast, in Iowa, Clinton scarcely mentioned young voters directly in her campaign stump speeches.