Youth activism
Youth rights |
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Youth activism is the participation in community organizing for social change by persons between the ages of 15–24.[1] Youth activism has led to a shift in political participation and activism. A notable shift within youth activism is the rise of “Alter-Activism” resulting in an emphasis on lived experiences and connectivity amongst young activists.[2] The young activists have taken lead roles in public protest and advocacy around many issues like climate change, abortion rights and gun violence.[3] Different from past protest or advocacy, technology has become the backbone to many of these modern youth movements.[4] It has been shown in multiple studies that internet use along with seeking information online is shown to have positive impacts on political engagement.[5] Popular applications like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube have become the newest tools for young activists in the 21st century. Technology and the use of digital media has changed the way youth participate in activism globally, and youth are more active in media than older generations.[6]
Overview
Youth involvement in politics has been on the rise for the past 10 years. However, many youths are concerned and informed citizens who can advocate for change within their communities.[7] Youth is an elastic category, the age at which it begins and ends varies within cultural contexts, but it is often a very distinct stage in a person's life to which particular issues or policies are highly relevant. These may include politics, health, and social issues.[8]
Sociopolitical development is a "psychological process that covers the range of cognitions, skills, attitudes, worldviews, and emotions that support social and political action" (Watts, Griffith, & Abdul-Adil, 1999).[9] The process of SPD was further defined by Watts & Flannagan to impact young people’s social analysis, worldview and sense of agency and to provide them opportunity structures and support towards their societal involvement behavior (2007)."[10]
Social activism is the predominant form of youth activism today, as millions of young people around the world participate in social activism that is organized, informed, led, and assessed by adults. Many efforts, including
Youth-driven activism requires young people to be the primary movers within an adult-led movement. Such is the case with the Sierra Club, where youth compel their peers to join and become active in the environmental movement. This is also true of many organizations that were founded by youth who became adults, such as SEAC and National Youth Rights Association.[citation needed]
Political activism by youth can go unnoticed because youth activism often occurs on school grounds and away from the adult society, but youth often face resistance when forming youth activist groups in schools.
Technology
Social Media has become the vehicle for young activists to spread their dissent across their country and even globally. Applications like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even Snapchat create the large web of social networking that has allowed the youth around the world to create a new era of activism.
Social media
While Twitter has provided a platform for hashtag movements to take place, applications like Facebook and Twitter have been criticized for only instilling weak ties between activists creating a lack of offline activism.[18] The result of these weak ties has been the formation of slacktivism—a new ineffective form of activism.[19] A popular example of slacktivism is the social media campaign Kony 2012. While this campaign did gain strong social media traction with millions of views on their video, they failed to gain the same offline traction. A year later when they released Kony in 2013, they did get the same traction.[20] This is just one example of the slacktivism that can result from these applications.
Video vlogging
YouTube has allowed activists to exit the dangerous echo chamber that can be created online. By breaking free from this echo chamber, young YouTube activists and organization have been able to have a larger conversation about their issues.[25] YouTube has given a platform for “vloggers” to not only document their life, but also have personal (and political) conversations with a large audience all from home.[26] Vlogging has become very popular in youth activism including the Arab Spring. In the start of the Arab Spring, Asmaa Mahfouz from Egypt posted a vlog that eventually spread across YouTube. Many believe that this vlog was one factor that helped spark the revolution that took place in Egypt in 2011.[27] Like the Arab Spring, videos (in particular YouTube) played a very important role in the Occupy Movement as well in 2011.[28] Having YouTube allowed protestors to share videos of police abuse, but also share things like music videos to provide solidarity and morale.
Indymedia
Global youth activism
Youth activism in the
Africa & Asia
South Africa
A classic example of youth engagement in political activism is the
India
In India, youth born in the 1980s and 1990s comprise part of a middle class increasingly vocal against impunity for rapists and against government corruption.[31]
Indonesia
Youth activism in Indonesia takes many different forms and include a number of mass protests to overthrow governments and remove colonial powers in the past. Popular motivations of youth activism in Indonesia are indigenous rights and national unity, pro-communism, anticommunism, pro-democracy and militant Islam. A common form of activism is massa, a cavalcade of motorcycles, trucks, music, and many young people on foot. These cavalcades are mostly males and end with a rally to address a certain political issue. In general, youth have been looking for political change during the last four decades.[32]
Malaysia
Video blogging has become increasing popular in Malaysia. Youth activists upload their videos and independent films to the popular site EngageMedia. This is used by Malaysians to encourage young people to become citizen journalists. Youth view EngageMedia as a safe space for their video blogs, but there is still fear of retribution.[24]
Nepal
The 1979 student protests in Nepal were a series of protests amongst the student community in Nepal during the months of April and May 1979. The clashes that occurred had a significant historical impact, as they forced the monarchy to concede to holding a referendum on the possibility of a multiparty system in the country. Official figures stated that 11 persons were killed during the agitation, and 164 wounded.
Youth and Student organisations such as Nepal Student Union, ANNFSU and Nepal Tarun Dal are key forces behind protests and demonstration against authoritarian governments. Youths have been standing in the forefront in 1951, 1980, 1990 and 2005 democratic movements.
The Philippines
Youth activism has had a long history in the Philippines. The original founding members of the
Known youth groups currently in operation are Liberal Youth, Kabataan Partylist, Akbayan Youth, and Youth Reform Movement Philippines.
Singapore
Singapore is one of the most developed information and communication technology (ICT) countries in the world. In 2010 the computer ownership rate was 84 percent, with internet access at 78 percent. In 2009, mobile phone penetration reached 137 percent, meaning many people of Singapore have access to more than one phone.[33]
Youth use ICT for social and political purposes. In the 2011 general election, people between the ages of 21 and 34 were more active in online politics. Youth who wrote about elections on blogs, Facebook or Twitter were at 28 percent, while the general public were only 10 percent.[33]
Middle East
Egypt
Youth proved to be central to the Egyptian Revolution and the
Iran
Young adults in Iran defy the official regime's cultural and political policies through engaging in prohibited activities in places like taxi rides, coffee shops, and basements. Such actions re-imagine Iranian reality in ways that contest regime policies.[34]
Saudi Arabia
Europe
Serbia
Throughout the 1990s, youth took to the streets to protest against Serbian leader
United Kingdom
Youth activism increased in the
Since then, the worsening situation for many young people and their despondency about politicians, in combination with the rise of social media and globalization have led to more youth activism.
This is particularly the case with
Young people are protesting in these movements around the world[39]
North America
United States
Youth activism as a social phenomenon in the United States truly became defined in the mid- to late-nineteenth century when young people began forming labor strikes in response to their working conditions, wages, and hours.
Highlights of youth activism throughout the 21st century
Youth activism continues to take place in the 21st century at local, regional, national, and international levels. Youth activists today use technology and social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to shed light on oppression and to highlight problems such as economic inequality, police misconduct, racial injustice, and much more through online platforms.[40][41][42][43] Youth activism has transformed political participation through technology and created a form of engaged citizenship unique to today's young people .[44][45] A significant shift in civic engagement has happened in the United States due to the rise and accessibility of political information online[46]
2010
In 2010, the Student/Farmworker Alliance worked with Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve work standards for migrant workers in Florida.[47]
Also, in 2010, the student activist group United Students Against Sweatshops successfully campaigned for Nike to improve standards for their workers in Honduras. Their slogan was an effective play on words of Nike's slogan: Just Pay it.[48]
2012
While Malala Yousafzai has been an activist for female education, initially in Pakistan, since 2009, support for her cause reached international levels after she was shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012 because of her activism. Since then, Yousafzai has established a non-profit organization and received the Nobel Peace Prize. She also was the catalyst for a United Nations campaign for children's education worldwide.[citation needed]
2013
While the Black Lives Matter movement is not entirely a youth activist group, its founders were three young women who established it in response to the acquittal of the man who killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old African American.[49] Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) was also established in response to that, but it limits participation to those aged 18 to 35. These two groups have worked together, and with others, to protest police killings of black people.[50] Unlike BYP 100, Black Lives Matter has become an international movement with chapters outside of the United States[51]
2016
While the causes of the Flint Water Crisis have been determined by independent investigators,[52] the crisis is not yet resolved as work to replace the corroded water lines is slightly more than one third completed, with 7,750 of more than 22,000 lead-contaminated water services lines to replace.[53] In 2016, Flint resident Amariyanna "Mari" Copeny, aged 8, wrote President Obama to bring to his attention the public health crisis caused the Flint Water crisis. President Obama accepted her invitation to come to Flint.[54] In April 2018, Governor Rick Snyder announced that water quality is "within the standards" and the lead level doesn't exceed federal limits. This has resulted in the termination of a free bottled water program.[55][56][57] Since then, Copeny, also known as Little Miss Flint, continues to work to improve the lives of youth in her community. Not only has she, in collaboration with Pack Your Back, raised more than $27,000 to provide thousands of bottled water since the government program was stopped,[58][59] she has also raised money to provide 800 seats for under-served children to see Black Panther[60] and crowdfunded to send Flint youth to see A Wrinkle in Time.[61][62] Prior to these fundraising endeavors, she first worked with Pack Your Back to fill 1,000 backpacks for Flint students.[63]
At age 7, Bana al-Abed started using Twitter with her mother's assistance to share her experiences living in Aleppo, Syria. Al-Abed has become a world-renowned youth activist, publishing a memoir in 2017 and receiving the Asian Awards' Rising Star of the Year award in 2018.[64]
2018
The
Swedish then-15-year-old student
2021
Youth climate activists such as
See also
References
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Further reading
- Deka, Kaustubh "From Movements to Accords and Beyond : The critical role of student organizations in the formation and performance of identity in Assam Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, 2013