No, the voting age shouldn't we lowered to 16. People at the age of 16 or 17 is still in high school, meaning that they have other concerns to worry about such as their academics and extra cocurricular. By adding another concern in their minds will simply overwhelm them.

I understand my opponent's point, if one is affect, one should be able to possibly alter the fact. However, this brings to a new sets of problems. My opponent uses employment as an example, so a person with income should be able to vote, but a 13 year old can also have income by posting social media platforms, pay taxes while also being under the algorithmic decision-making and constant surveillance, does that mean they should also be able to vote? Of course not, like most of you would agree that a 13 year old should not be able to vote. Also, what would a 16-year-old know about elections, how would they know who's side to stand on, who to trust. According to Pew Research Centre, only about 15% of 16-year-olds watch traditional political news, and about 60% of 16-year-olds get their political information from social media. The difference between the 2 is the contrasting perspectives, traditional political channels provides both sides' arguments and political standpoint but on social media, it provides a standpoint that they want to hear because of the algorithm as they mentioned, which creates a shallow understanding of the entire political situation. Another data provided by Fortune is that about 44% of 17-year-old gets political exposure. Therefore, because of the lack of knowledge, they should not be able to vote. On top of that, if a 16-year-old lacking political knowledge were to vote, who would they vote. Randomly or following their guardians or parents. This turns the vote from decision making to which side has more kids' vote to manipulate. So, if they were to vote they would just be voting what their parents want, where they might as well not. Voting is a huge deal as it can change how a country operates, how people are punished, where the nation is heading towards, their goals/ aims, can all be changed just from voting. If we let people under the age 18 vote, we lose reliability in the voting system.

Correct, adults have other duties too, but the difference is perspective. According to NIH research, they found that 16-year-olds weights both sides depending on the environment, difference between low-stakes polling and public issues is rather high. If the situation is low-stakes, 16-year-olds tend to evaluate the case more trough but in public issue settings is the complete opposite. However, same research shows adults operates differently; in low-stake scenarios they tend to skip through perspectives but in important situations they view things from both sides before making the final judgement. Yes 16-year-olds are getting taxed, they are getting tracked by platforms and governed by digital policies, but psychologically, people who are not adults are incapable to make rational decisions for the country.