Generation Z, the first truly digital natives, will be voting for the first time during this year’s Lok Sabha polls. The 18- to 19-year age group with its infectious have-vote-will-cast attitude, form a formidable chunk of first-time voters. To get them into polling stations, it’s not Mizoram’s selfie contest. Here’s another.
What? An online initiative for young voters comes from Instagram in the form of a sticker. The ‘civic engagement sticker’ is being launched by Instagram today.
Why? “The idea is to create a sticker iconic to Indian elections, basically an index finger with an ink mark on it,” says Tara Bedi, Public Policy and Community Outreach Manager, Instagram India. “Young people can use it, talk about the fact that they have voted and also encourage other people to vote. When you tap on the sticker it leads to the website of the Election Commission of India and helps you find your polling station. The idea was to connect people to a resource,” she says.
As a backgrounder, Bedi explains that the social-media platform had introduced a sticker during the midterm elections in the US, and during general elections in Brazil. “We introduced stickers in order to create a fun opportunity on Instagram stories to talk about the fact that they have voted. The design was integrated with the flag of the United States, and in Brazil it had words written in Portuguese.”
Who? In India, the company decided to work with Tara Anand, a 20-year-old Mumbai-bred artist, who works with gouache, digital media and water colour. Currently in New York, pursuing a BFA degree in illustration from the School of Visual Arts, Anand has an impressive list of clients (Harper’s Bazaar India, Scholastic India, for instance).
How? The work on the sticker has kept her occupied for over a month. “When Instagram approached me to create something for the elections in India obviously the first image that came to my mind was the finger with a mark on it,” she says. Her aim was to make it as graphic as possible, so people would feel propelled to put it out on their stories when they went out to vote.
A first-time voter, Anand’s enthusiasm is infectious: “This is the first time that a lot of us are being able to register to vote and will take part in the decision-making in the country. I think it’s very important.” With her whole generation being online a lot, she says online activism is at its active best. “We are clearly a generation that likes to speak up for what we believe in, so hopefully that will reflect in the polls as well,” she says, getting ready to cast her own vote.
