• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 18, 2016

Searching for the correct answers isn't always easy, especially when you're given a chance to ask one important life-changing question of one of the three 2016 Democratic presidential candidates. Would you have asked something different?

The important things like knowing what, when, where, why and how seem a lot different today than even 15 years ago, the year the world changed as a result of Sept. 11, 2001. I'm referring to the questions asked by Google's YouTube stars during Sunday's Democratic debate, and their reflection of society that earned them time with Democratic hopefuls.

Ironically, these fresh new faces on YouTube -- a co-sponsor of the fourth Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley -- were barely born at the turn of the century. Yet YouTube gave these four popular channel creators a spot to ask pre-recorded questions during the most critical Democratic debate the U.S. will see during this campaign.

In an effort to appeal to young voters, Franchesca Ramsey, Connor Franta, and Marques Brownlee and scientists from MinuteEarth, used their time to present a question based on their knowledge about climate change. The debate hosted by NBC was also streamed live on YouTube.

How did the others use their time?

Ramsey, host of MTV’s "Decoded," tackled race and pop culture, with one episode talking about "Shit White Girls Say … To Black Girls." Answered by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her question focused on potential bias from local prosecutors in high-profile deaths involving police.

Twenty-three-year-old Franta, with 5.24 million YouTube followers, used his question to ask former Secretary Clinton about her efforts to appeal to younger voters.

Marques Brownlee, a techie with 3.16 million viewers, used his knowledge about technology to ask whether technology companies and the government can find a middle ground over encryption, setting up a debate between privacy and security to follow reports earlier this month that tech companies are helping the U.S. government find the loopholes assisting Islamic militants communicate. 

The meeting brought together America’s most senior counterterrorism officials such as National Security Agency director Michael Rogers, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and FBI director James Comey with some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful executives at Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and others.

What questions would you have asked given the opportunity? Will we see the same during the Republican debate?