Should 16 Year Olds Be Allowed To Vote Essay Example

Introduction

Teenagers have long been a part of changing society and it's needs, from fueling new trends to garnering attention about a particular subject through social media. In Maggie Astor's words, "today's activism is often found in high schools," from creating clubs to support the LGBTQ+ community and BLM. However, giving students a voice is much different from giving them reins to achieve that goal directly. So while voting is an important part in deciding the future, 16-year old's should not be given the right to that due to their maturity.

Body paragraph #1

At 16-years old kids are driving and going out, some even paying taxes and drafting their college essays. It all sounds like things adults would do, and in part, it is. Actions do not override science, though. It's a fact that the maturity levels of adults varies greatly from teens.  "The prefrontal cortex...doesn’t fully develop until the mid-20s." (Jacoby, Source 3), which is the part of the brain that rationalizes things. Because of this, a teenager most often chooses what their emotions tell them, and not their head. A teenager usually does not recognize the long-term consequences of things, and that is a something crucial in terms of voting.

Body paragraph #2 (optional)

Teens also, do not know nearly enough to put their opinions in. "At 16, most kids have little awareness of politics, civics or American history," Braceras- a senior at Independent Women’s Forum- explains. A teenager who is in the prime of their life, busy with completing school work and socializing, they get their knowledge from the environment, whether that's their parents or their phones, and that environment is often biased. Like the saying goes, know your history or be doomed to repeat it. What's more, teenagers have little life experience to inform their decisions, influencing how they choose to respond and react to various life situations, something that defines maturity.

Counterargument

But 16 year old's, as stated in the first paragraph, now are often doing things that adults are. Ayanna Presley, a state representative, fleshes out in detail the hardships thousands of teenagers are going through, motives for their reason to vote. Change comes from those who know the problem best, and to the representative, it's teenagers. Ema Smith, a freshman at Yale agrees. “A lot of 16-year-olds are working and getting taxed...a lot of things happen at 16." In the cliché of teenage ignorance, she ignores the other side of the story. Stress has always been a big factor in the life of kids, and now it is even more so with the rise of new technology. Would giving voting rights to 16 year old's really improve their life, or harden it, when faced with the everlasting effects of immature voting and stress of having a hand in changing the nation.

Conclusion

In the end, 16 year old's do not reserve the right to vote, and probably never should. Whether by science or their own word, they have proven that the general population of them are not mature enough to handle it. Voting is not a right, it is earned with age and experience, things 16-year old's and younger lack.