“Like Rolling Dice”: 7 Gen Z College Students On Talking Politics In Florida

Her Campus is on tour! In partnership with Future Caucus and DoSomething, the Her Campus Voices: Election 2024 Tour is coming to college campuses around the country to host conversations with students to get their insights and opinions as we approach the November election. Next up is the University of Central Florida. Here’s what the UCF Knights had to say about discussing politics in an election battleground state.

Election Day 2024 is less than a month away, which means the political tension that always exists in the United States these days is only growing stronger. For some people, talking about politics has always been a little taboo or uncomfortable. In 2024, however, it feels like the election cycle has been more intense than ever before. From the apparent assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump to the Democratic party’s last-minute nominee switch from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris, it feels like there is *so* much to talk about… but navigating those conversations can be incredibly fraught.

Where you live and who you interact with on a daily basis can also have a major impact on how you talk about politics: If you’re surrounded by people who think and feel the same as you, it’s probably a lot easier to speak more candidly (although you might not learn as much) compared to those living in areas with more diverse political leanings. Florida, for example, is largely considered a red state, but it also has significant pockets of blue, primarily in metropolitan areas. This mix of different political beliefs — and the dynamics that come into play when talking about these beliefs — was on full display during Her Campus’s Oct. 3 visit to the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where a group of college students shared how they feel about talking politics with friends, family, and classmates.

Here’s what they had to say.

They speak up about their beliefs, but with caution.

With Florida being such a mixed bag of political beliefs, many of which are strongly held, it can be hard to know if the person sitting next to you in class shares your opinions, even if you get along well and have a ton of other things in common. For some, this is reason enough to only discuss politics with close friends and family, or those who they know they align with politically. “If I don’t know where they stand compared to me, it’s kind of like I’m rolling dice, so that’s nerve-wracking sometimes,” Nina F.*, a leader of a conservative political student org on campus, says. “I usually only talk about it if I am close with the person, I know that they stand in line with me, or if I know that they’re kind of in the middle and I want to convince them and tell them why I’m voting for this person.”

However, other students said they are open to discussing politics with anyone, including acquaintances and coworkers, even when they weren’t sure what the outcome would be. Sierra N., who is taking a masters-level political behaviors class, says, “I think that’s a really important thing to learn … just being able to sit down with people and have a very respectful conversation with everyone and not everybody agrees with everything 100%.” Fellow student Em M. agrees, saying, “If I have a friend, I’m like, ‘You know what? We don’t agree on this, but it’s OK.’ We can still hopefully have a respectful conversation.”

We can have a respectful, peaceful conversation about it. It doesn’t need to turn aggressive.

While political conversations can certainly be civil and thought-provoking, sometimes they can go awry. Especially in college, where so many young people are discovering their identities and forming their own points of view for the first time as adults, differences in opinion can feel personal, and disagreements can be tense. “A lot of my peers — maybe we’re a bit on the younger side — they can tend to be a bit immature and disrespectful when it comes to political views,” Lexani D. says. “When we end up talking about it, they begin turning it in a way that feels almost harmful, and I just feel like that’s so unnecessary. We can have a respectful, peaceful conversation about it. It doesn’t need to turn aggressive.”

Many college students have learned firsthand how disagreements over politics — especially in such a tumultuous time — have the potential to impact, and even end, relationships. Brandy V. shares one such anecdote: “I made a mistake a couple of weeks ago of talking politics with one coworker, who I considered my friend, and we clearly disagreed on something and she walked away … and then she unfollowed me.”

Social media both helps and hinders communication.

With Gen Z the most “online” generation of the voting population, a lot of their beliefs are shaped by what they see on social media. This can be a great thing, as it exposes people to stories and points of view they might not otherwise get. But sometimes, being inundated with information can actually keep people from forming their own opinions, instead going with the flow of whatever echo chamber their algorithm has trapped them in. “I think that’s so toxic when you have an opinion on an issue, but your opinion is not really your opinion,” Jacob L. says. “It’s what you’ve heard from somebody, it’s what you’ve liked on social media.”

Further, while the internet is an incredible asset for sharing information, it’s also a huge issue when it comes to spreading misinformation. Especially during the 2024 election cycle, misinformation has been rampant, and it has made it all the more difficult to have political conversations. And even though Gen Zers are far more social media-literate than many other generations, they still struggle to decipher truth from fake news. The students cited viral moments during the election — such as Biden stepping down, Trump’s apparent assassination attempts, and the AI-generated images of Taylor Swift supporting Trump — as topics heavily discussed among friends and family that they had to fact-check to see if they were actually true. (For the record, the first two were real news events, but Swift did not, in fact, endorse Trump.)

They’re hopeful about their generation’s ability to unite, despite their differences.

Even though they acknowledged their differences in opinion when it came to multiple key political issues, the UCF students all agreed on one key point: They like that Gen Zers are vocal about their beliefs. “I think that is a really special part of Gen Z — they’ll continue to advocate for how they feel,” Sierra says. 

That is a really special part of Gen Z — they’ll continue to advocate for how they feel.

Nina also points out that while Gen Z takes politics seriously, that doesn’t mean there’s no fun involved. “With politics, everything seems really serious all the time, but I love our ability to make memes and make little songs, just finding the humor of it all,” she says. “I think that brings us together — just really being passionate and enjoying talking about these topics and not taking it so seriously.”

And although political conversations don’t always go well, these college students are determined to keep trying. “My grandparents didn’t really talk about politics,” Hailey B. says. “But I think Gen Z is very excited to branch out, learn more, educate ourselves, and use our resources — and I think that’s important.”

*Names have been changed.

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