Truth be told, I’m 27, and 2016 was the first year I voted.

I took a U.S. history class in high school and promptly forgot all of it during my subsequent four-year liberal arts education. (Course requirements stifle the growing creative mind, so I never took a single political science or economics class.) Why worry about a landmark gun debate around the Aurora, Colo., “Dark Knight” mass shooting when 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was dying of syphilis?

Young people, whether distracted by their outpouring of compassion for dead white men or utterly consumed with which pronoun to pick, have long been lackluster at the polls. Millennial voting rates have never exceeded 50 percent, even in 2008 when we hoisted Barack Obama to the White House. According to a national poll in 2015, just 2 in 10 young Americans consider themselves “politically engaged and active.”

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Since Donald Trump took office, people younger than 53 have surpassed Baby Boomers as our nation’s largest eligible voting population. But, for the upcoming midterms, only 26 percent of Americans ages 18-29 are certain they’ll vote. Which is, stunningly, more than usual: Gallup says this is Millennial enthusiasm at a “fever pitch.”

To my generation, participating in politics is a preference — like everything else, even morals. Less than half of Millennials believe that “there are some things that are just wrong, regardless of the situation.” My friends love phrases like “whatever floats your boat” and “you do you.”

View Voter/Rx Are you feeling tired, irritable, stressed out? Are you suffering from electile dysfunction? See http://bit.ly/VoterRx for a bit of medicine for an ailing voter.

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So, appealing to young nonvoters with reminders of our “ethical obligation” or “civic duty” to vote is downright futile. The real question Millennials are asking, if we’re thinking about it at all, is: Is voting good for me?

It turns out that it is.

Voters are more likely to have higher incomes later in life, fewer symptoms of depression, engage in less risky behavior, and have a lower risk of death than those who don’t vote. And it’s as easy as drinking kombucha, except that unlike the 1.2 billion probiotic particles totally unproven to do anything at all in your gut, voting works.

I joined a group of filmmakers to educate my generation about this legal, long-lasting, and adequately self-serving treatment. The result is Voter|Rx.

If not to protect democracy, oppose tyranny and join society, vote for you.

Caroline Beaton is a Denver freelance writer and video producer. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters.