There are a lot of problems in the world that people can change by putting a light on that and provide awareness by talking about it and spreading the source of the problem and demanding change. It is so important for young people to take part in activism and become a part of the social change since the youth is the generation that will be affected by the future. And shaping the world around us so as to create a better future for us is in our hands.
In his TED talk Sam Stevens divides the ways that the youth can be involved with activism into 3 major categories: The consumers, the activists and the educators.
Every person is a consumer since we use products made by companies, and pay money to consume the stuff. But before deciding which company we will support we should be aware of what they stand for and what their practices are. If we find out that one of the company’s principles are wrong for us then we should stop consuming it while making it known that the reason we’re not buying from them anymore is because of their practices. If we believe that they are wrong for supporting those practices we should also try to reach people that use the company’s products and spread awareness. The youth is advantaged in this way since a lot of young people use social media and it’s easier to spread info about these kinds of topics. Once there is a huge number of protests towards that company, the company would change its practices in order to avoid the loss of income.
The adults don’t expect young people to be involved in world problems and become activists. But the impact of young people using their platform for activism would create a wider impact than adults since young people do it for the sole purpose of creating change for the better while the adults might be seen as only spreading awareness in a way that would provide them better views on their job or since they have connections so it won’t be clear why they are supporting the idea. But if a high schooler is bringing light to an important topic and asking to spread awareness then it would give the message more clear and it won’t be taken to any other way. For an example to this we can give Greta Thunberg, she was just a 16 year old girl when she started her protests to spread awareness to climate change. Everyone knew that she wasn’t doing it to sell a product or be partisan to anything and her point was very clear and it affected a lot of people to view this topic in a different light since a 16 year old was trying her everything and was so passionate about it that it made people feel like they should also take action about it.
And lastly the educators group, in his talk Stevens mentions that peer-to-peer conversations are so important since young people are more likely to listen and take other young people’s thoughts more seriously and relate to it more since they are peers. The way that we listen to our friends’ interests and what they care for is different than how we see our parents/elders ones because the elder ones have been telling us how to think our whole life and young people would have a harder time to relate to what they are mentioning compared to their peer’s considerations.
To sum up, it is important that young people are involved in activism actions and participate in making the world a better place. Take action towards what you believe in and be the change you want to see in the world.
Related TEDx video: Sam Stevens – Moving Youth Towards Action and Activism
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