There has been such a big political divide in our nation particularly with adults but how do our nation’s young handle this environment? How do opinions and belief structures change based on such factors as socioeconomic factors, upbringing, religious views, location, family history, etc? These factors affect how people, in this case, students of Santa Rosa View politics. Santa Rosa has become a melting pot of diversity recently statistically with most of the students being mainly white and Mexican. How do students engage with politics in our current climate for better or worse?

Do students engage with these politics? And if so, how can it cause them to be in arguments with other students? The students need to figure out how their opinions can affect what happens with other students or people. When a student tries to engage they have to think about whether or not what would happen. As students talk about politics they begin to realize what can be affected.

Freshman Liam Brisson said, “I think that politics, even if you aren’t invested in them, are important to know a little bit about, so you can form your own opinions on topics and know how they affect you.”

As people grow they learn things about other people or how politics can give them pressure. When a student gets older they realize that they have to start to pick sides for their own opinions. A person will start to feel the pressure when they are told to pick sides and that can lead to many things such as stress, depression, etc. The parents don’t realize that when they tell their child to participate in politics they will begin to experience stress. This can cause many problems for the family as well.

9th grader Samantha Triolo said,” Well to be honest I try to stay updated with any current politics because it’s a comfort to me knowing what’s happening in the world.”

If a student or adult were to engage in politics this could also affect their mental state. Surveys show that when people start to participate in politics they tend to lose sleep and gain more stress over the thought of what they are participating in. This happens because people are engaging through social media and this can cause many problems for the people around them. This can include apps such as YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. People can start to have negative effects on this problem. They can start to get more aggressive when it comes to certain conversations.