We want to be heard and try our best to make a difference, so why shouldn’t we vote when we have every right to?
Warning: this contains chatter about The X Factor and I’m a Celebrity! Get Me Out of Here – you have been warned.
Every vote counts. Whether it be a general election or the final you’ve been waiting for all Winter - Strictly Come Dancing. An American blogger I came across, Bryan Caplan has a lot to say about voting and states that he purposely decides not to vote out of disgust and hate. He says, “My honest answer begins with extreme disgust: When I look at voters, I see human beings at their hysterical, innumerate worst. When I look at politicians, I see mendacious, callous bullies.” He is not budging is he, and let’s face it, he will do everything in his power to avoid voting because he despises everything about it. This passive aggression shows just how easy it is to come up with an excuse to withdraw from a vote that anyone is entitled to. Neglecting the importance of voting is noticeable everywhere. We are exposed to this abandonment of freedom of opinion through the less essential elections too – those which depend on the audience and how popular you are across the nation.
It’s 2009 on a Winter Saturday night in, you see Louis Walsh squirm in joy over One Direction’s One Way or Another (he simply can’t sit still) and he comes out with his classic line: “you’re born to be pop-stars”. 2018’s winner of The X Factor, Dalton Harris wowed the nation with his voice that was nothing short of a guardian angel in disguise, and runner-up Scarlett wasn’t so bad either. But, we are no longer in a time of voting for your favourite through the ‘old’ traditional way. I remember memorising the number of Alexandra Burke’s voting number every week, it was the only way that I could say “I’ve done all that I can now” before the results come in... she won! Voting was the most exciting thing about my weekends at the age of 10. It was a treat like renting a film from your local Blockbuster. As time has gone by, we just don’t bother to vote anymore, but you’ll vote in the final because it will anger you if anyone else wins.
No programmes can pull the number of viewers that this nationwide favourite can, it’s a well-known fact. Yet, more viewers are struggling to see the real value that voting has in ensuring their favourite contestant will definitely win. Is it laziness? Why do we vote for people on talent shows anyway? A lot of the time, the favourites are set in stone from the very beginning, just as Harry Redknapp was, as he was the nation’s favourite all the way through to the final of I'm A Celebrity. Likewise, we all knew deep down that Dalton was our winner to be, so this could have led a lot of the public to think: “what is the point in voting”. Though, we had to pay the consequence by watching Acacia and Aaliyah sing the same Stormzy song every week until their departure.
Voting is nothing short of a fame fest, we vote for those we like, who we fancy, and who everyone else is fond of, too. Popularity overrules the talent unless you’re absolutely outstanding, then, in that case, it simply won’t matter if you’re the top dog, you’re going to win and being liked is just a bonus. Let’s pretend I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here is a talent show, and none of them are famous for a tiny second. When Noel Edmunds drew the short straw and was the series’ late-comer, everyone in camp and everyone at home already had their favourites by that time of the series. Meaning, however entertaining, convincing or pretty they are, it doesn’t mean a thing. In fact, Noel didn’t stand a chance anyway, with his early-on tendencies of causing tension in camp and being crowned the royal outsider on his arrival.
If you get onto the show straight away, lucky you, you’ve made it. For Liam Payne, he got lucky his second time round auditioning. This brings me onto the fact that The X Factor is a changing show, and now it is all about the “all-roundedness” that the voice comes hand in hand with. You’ll see that after The Judges Houses, a handful of ‘the lucky finalists’ are often not the same people you once saw on your screen, at the auditions. This is all a way to make them popular, so they are guaranteed a good chance of going far after the competition. The 5 boys from what was, United Vibe, all auditioned as solo artists, yet, the judges decided they would be better as a boyband instead, just in time for Judges Houses. The lads were also forced to change United Vibe to their current name, ‘Vibe 5’ just before the live shows, despite refusing at first.
Unless you are totally invested in the contestants and the program, you’re not going to vote, and that was Bryan Caplan’s “I hate voting” excuse too. A whopping 5.5 million tuned in to see Dalton, Scarlett and Anthony compete in The X Factor’s final, and, over 11 million voted in the final of I’m a Celeb, where Harry scored 69% of the final vote of the series. We vote to guarantee that the candidates or politicians of our choice will win, but we find it to be too much of an effort to take the voting part seriously during the scope of the competition, and, find ourselves complaining when someone we ‘kinda’ liked gets booted off of the show.
Whether it’s for Strictly, Big Brother or The Circle, we nevertheless still feel a need inside of us to vote in the final. The final is our final time to make sure our heroes take the crown, responsibility to make the decision or take that record deal. Voting isn’t how it used to be, but it’s going to be a while until the day that the whole nation actively decides to watch something else.