In part 3, we saw how today, our political opinions don’t matter. With PeopleCount.org, they will matter and people will act more responsibly and become more informed. In this article, we’ll explore how it’ll effect young people.

This article says today’s young people are better informed, but voting less. They have more exposure to political articles and positions on Facebook, Twitter and other social media, but they find it distasteful. And, their opinions don’t make a difference- so why bother?

But imagine a few years from now after PeopleCount.org takes off. Imagine for a minute that high school students vote on issues they care about.

They would develop the expectation that their opinions made a difference, that when they’re 18, they’ll help steer the country.  How different will that be from the way you and I grew up, wedded to cynicism and expecting politics to be messy, slow, and filled with fighting and frustration?

Sure, there’ll be hard questions that many don’t know the answers to. What will they do? Imagine your voice guided government- what would you do?

They’ll ask others on social media. They’ll search the web for answers. They’ll participate on Reddit or ask questions on Quora. And maybe they’ll start by checking “Don’t Know” and see that lots of people are undecided. This could provoke a national effort to come up with better answers and better information. Maybe a new site will spring up where people brainstorm solutions to political problems and people rate them to call attention to the better ones, or an existing site that tries this, like SynAccord or AgreeDis, will get the attention and support it needs to make a difference.

Imagine kids grow up occasionally getting a message that an issue they care about is being taken up by Congress. They’ll read their representative’s report and give them feedback. They’ll use the handy links to see focused articles from their favorite news sources, blogs and commentators, as well as to new sites.  They’ll be able to see which sources people liked, which they thought were fair or presented the issue better, and which had novel perspectives.

PeopleCount.org’s plan is to shift the culture. Currently, we think our opinions don’t make a difference. Not only are we right, but it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that reinforces our powerlessness. With PeopleCount.org, people will be empowered. People will expect they can make a difference. That expectation will add to people’s power. They’ll act like their actions matter. They’ll come up with new ideas and act on them. They’ll create new solutions and make them work.

We’ll wrap it up in part 5.