On Nov. 6, millions of Americans will go to the polls to decide the next president of the United States.

A portion of voters who will be casting their ballots will be young, 18-year-olds who probably could not give an on-the-spot summary of GOP challenger Mitt Romney or President Barack Obama’s tax plans.

How can people be sure who to vote for and believe in if they only know about political and national events from what other people tell them?

Unfortunately, too many young adults seem to be more interested in what Kim Kardashian ate for breakfast than keeping tabs on the national debt, which at $16 trillion, is climbing daily. For a visual, go to usdebtclock.org.

The national debt is only one of the many issues that our country faces.  The titanic debt also casts a shadow on jobs and the cost of student loans that all of us will have to deal with in the coming years.

A generation of teen 50 years ago had a similar stake in who was elected president.  They were faced with the Vietnam War, staggering unemployment, a sluggish economy, high inflation, and gas shortages.  These young Americans were involved and up-to-date on national and world events and were able to form their own opinions about who was right and who was wrong on the issues of the day.

They marched. They sat. They sang. They wrote. They voted. And they were able to make a change in the direction that the country was going.

Our generation needs to stop obsessing over trivial matters that no one will remember in 20 years and start thinking about national and world events that affect us in the present and will in the future.