Singer-songwriter Jack Johnson doesn’t tweet and he doesn’t use Facebook, but he’s decided to engage with social media in the name of a good cause: Voter registration.
Tuesday will see the largest social media-driven voter registration campaign in honor of National Voter Registration Day. Run by voter registration group HeadCount, Johnson will join Stephen Colbert, 50 Cent, Dave Matthews, and more than 200 other celebrities to post to Twitter and Facebook encouraging people to register to vote.
[quote type=”large” align=”left”] “HeadCount comes to our shows and volunteers walk around with clipboards to get people to sign up to vote. It’s amazing to look at the numbers and see the impact it can have on registration,” Jack Johnson told Mashable. “I’m looking forward to seeing how it translates to the Internet.” [/quote]
Johnson says that though he’s largely social media shy (his Twitter account is run by his management team), he’s excited to be a part of an initiative to push young people to vote.
[quote type=”large” align=”left”] “I’ve always been grateful to the Internet — without it, my music wouldn’t have stood a chance,” Johnson said. “Back when I got started, people were learning to burn CDs and that was great because it allowed my album to spread even though it was in limited distribution. The web can be very powerful.” [/quote]
On why he avoids social media:
[quote type=”large” align=”left”] “It works out great for some artists, but when I think back on my favorite artists such as Bob Marley, I can’t picture him tweeting. I guess I keep it a little more romantic and mysterious that way.” [/quote]
Johnson is currently writing new songs and hopefully recording in the future.
