When doing a long night’s worth of homework, I like to turn on TV background noise to complement the smooth jazz playing at a deafening level through my headphones.

While whatever is on in the background is nothing of substance usually, I recently caught both the Democratic and Republican national conventions due to my late-night channel surfing.

While most people who are still in high school may not care for this type of programming, especially when they have homework they haven’t started, I was quickly drawn into the speeches.

I was born in the summer of 2007, making me 8 months too young to vote in this year’s presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

So why would I even bother tuning in to their televised speeches?

While most high school students are too young to vote in this year’s presidential race, this doesn’t mean they’re never going to reach the requirements to do so.

While young people are not going to the polls to vote, both candidates are promoting their campaigns, mainly to younger voters with accounts on TikTok to promote their beliefs.

One such video was posted to Donald Trump’s TikTok on Aug. 15 where Trump shows how all types of food are up in prices and claims that “this is just the beginning.”

If I saw this video naturally while on a late-night scrolling spree, my interest would have peaked, especially since the issue is one that applies to me. I love to eat, so seeing the prices of food going up would worry me.

A similar video on Harris’ account was posted Sept 5 during her rally in New Hampshire. The video is only a brief six seconds long but provides a decent feeling to watchers how her rallies would be.

Since both candidates have a solid social media presence, why not keep up?

After watching both the Republican and Democratic conventions, I feel the Democrats attempted to appeal to a younger audience, having rapper Lil Jon perform his song “Turn Down For What” during roll call while a much more mundane version could be seen at the RNC.

With this being an obvious attempt to get at young voters, it makes some wonder what could be next.

With elections and early voter ballots ramping up around the nation, who knows what either candidate has up their sleeve, and that in my eyes is what brings excitement to politics.

Every day turning on the news and seeing the newest declarations from each major candidate excites me to see what’s next.

That next step is the first debate between Harris and Trump, coming on Sept 10 on the network ABC, but will also be streaming on Disney + and Hulu.

Having an event like this on streaming sites that millions of people have brings in more awareness to politics globally, especially to younger people who may have just been trying to find a movie to turn on in the background.

As someone who can’t vote, I keep up with politics because of one major reason, the future.

While it may not strike the interest of many people my age doesn’t mean it shouldn’t. After all, its just who’s leading the nation I live in so why would I care?