Disaffected youth: are young people becoming more extreme?

This debate is part of Battle of Ideas North 2026.

Across the political spectrum, many of the most provocative and polarising ideas today are held by young people – from calls for radical social justice and reparations on the left to demands for remigration and stricter cultural conservatism on the right.

What is driving this seeming surge of youthful rebellion? Is it economic insecurity, cultural fragmentation, the influence of social media or a loss of faith in mainstream politics? And what does it mean for British democracy? The polling organisation More in Common suggests that ‘young people are giving up on mainstream politics and instead turning to parties that promise to burn it all down and start again, like Reform and the Greens’.

One feature now is that political polarisation has increased along gendered lines. Young men are twice as likely as young women to vote Reform while young women are more likely to vote Green. Internationally, all the evidence suggests a youth left/right spilt along the lines of sex, with – for example – young women supporting censorship far more than young men.

But what is causing this intragenerational polarisation? Some blame the rise of social media. Is the growth of online ‘echo chambers’ entrenching political divides and pushing young men and women to occupy different virtual spaces? Does the EDI culture that castigates and demonises young white men for being white and male encourage a different form of rebellion against the status quo?

More broadly, historically young people have often been in the forefront of fighting for change. But what explains the bias towards certain causes and not others today? ‘Radical’ youth, so vocal in supporting the Palestinian cause, seem to be muted into stunned silence following the recent revolt across Iran. Does this suggest that many may be lost in a maze of relativism and performative politics, too bewildered to encourage the toppling of an oppressive regime?

Are young people really more divided than before? Is the sensational style of social media, saturating political discussions with narratives of fear and doomsday scenarios, creating an unhealthy push towards extremes on all sides of politics? Or is a politically active generation – regardless of political or sexual bias – healthier than an alienated youth that falls back into political apathy and malaise?