With just seven days before voting in the upcoming Assembly elections on May 5, many people will be seriously considering who they will put their faith in.

For young people, the issue is affected by a feeling of disconnect from the main political parties which makes many young people feel like they have no viable mainstream candidates who represent them.

For young people who are voting for the first time ever, many are still under the impression that their opinion is less valid than those with more life experience.

Despite this, the vote of an 18-year-old is just as persuasive as the vote of a 60-year-old, and everyone capable of voting should be encouraged to do so.

This was highlighted to myself last week when a campaigner knocked on my door, I answered, and the person asked if they could speak to a parent about the election, despite having me right in front of them.

The lack of an attempt to even try to appeal to the younger generation is alienating.

According to a recent report*, it is possibly for this reason that 29 per cent of people between the ages of 18 and 25 have "no trust" in the NI Assembly, with only 1 per cent "strongly trust[ing]" it. (*The British Council's 'Next Generation: Ireland-Northern Ireland Report', December, 2018.)

Many young people do not see the point in voting. It is not because they think it won’t make a difference, but because no serious contender campaigns for the issues that young people care about.

To vote for a candidate that wishes to expand civil liberties, for example, would mean sacrificing a vote for a candidate that most likely would not be elected.

Young people care about issues such as supporting the women’s right to choose, combating climate change, mental health education and reform, general prosperity, human rights protection, education reform and peace.

Older people may describe the wishes of young people as naively idealistic – but those who do so would do well to remember that they, too, were once the liberals of their day.

The ‘Green and Orange’ politics of yesteryear no longer mean anything to most young people, but political parties keep pushing their agenda to remain in power.

Young people in Northern Ireland just do not have the same love of division that the vast majority of 'dinosaurs' in Stormont do.

We would far rather that elected politicians get on with representing their constituents, as they are paid to do so.

Stormont’s political disconnect from the youth vote should send shivers down the spine of anyone who wishes to see a younger generation that cares for the community in which they live.

Whatever the result of the election, it is important that everyone who can vote, does. Our political system doesn’t work properly if people opt out.

My generation looks to the future, whereas most politicians are still getting upset about whether someone calls here, ‘Northern Ireland’, 'the North of Ireland’, or 'the United Kingdom’.

However, I believe my generation's attitude fits in with a quote from former Deputy First Minister, the late Seamus Mallon, who said in 2018: "I don’t care what they call it, as long as it has one name: home.”