The future of American politics might be decided by whether young voters get most of their news through TikTok.

I don’t mean to single out the Chinese-owned vertical video app here. TikTok is a stand-in for a bigger phenomenon in modern American society: passive news consumption and incidental exposure, or the sense that news and information find their way to people.

As opposed to active news consumers — who are seeking out information, want to keep up with current events, and are more engaged with politics — passive news consumers encounter things in passing while scanning headlines on social media apps and video feeds or see and hear current events discussed by influencers on TikTok or their weekly podcasts. Politics might not be central to their lives. They might not be frequent voters. And so, they don’t go out of their way to keep up with the latest developments.

I’ve been thinking about this active versus passive distinction a lot recently, because I think it describes a lot of what is happening with Gen Z. This cohort of voters has been particularly confounding as of late. They are a lot more Republican than young voters of the past generation, even though plenty of evidence suggested they’d be the most progressive generation yet. Gen Z turned out in high numbers last year and shifted hard toward the GOP (though a slight majority did still support Democrats). Although there are signs this turn is slowing down, it doesn’t seem to be benefiting Democrats just yet.

Of course, no group of voters is monolithic, and no single reason can........

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