Young people have never before had more opportunity to get their voice heard than they do today …
On a day in which many voices get the chance to be heard, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth Ahmad Alhendawi will be conducting a Q&A session with the younger generation around the world over Twitter as part of the launch of the UNYouthNow movement.
In an era where the importance of enlightening the next generation of talented young minds is just as apparent as ever, we take a look at why the success and rise of youth rights has become such an important international goal.
Sense of empowerment
Many people believe that it is a prudent idea to have a strategy in how to tactically insert elements of control into the lives of the younger generation. This, in effect, exposes them bit by bit to responsibilities whilst still harnessing their passions as they strain at the leash to prove themselves.
This, however, I believe, is only partly the correct way to go about it.
The focus should not always be on how much control to devolve to today’s youth, but WHAT should be imparted to them. For all its clear flaws, the generation of the social media boom has certainly had its positives.
For example, Mr Alhendawi’s use of Twitter as the platform for discussion, rather than a partially covered media conference at a swanky hotel, has shown not only how society is moving with the technology that compliments it, but willing to integrate with it.
Their are many young people out there who not only utilise social media in everyday life, but actively rely on it for a number of reasons.
The likes of Facebook and Twitter, despite the negative material they can house, have started not only to devolve an element of control to young people, but are a success for youth rights in itself as they offer a voice that, previously, the youth never had the chance or confidence to express.
The generation we live in now that utilises social media is making the world, its issues and its opportunities much more accessible to the younger generation and, as mentioned, gives a sense of genuine empowerment.
Confident and methodical minds
That sense of empowerment, whether through social media or another medium, is breeding a new set of younger people that are not only feeling an element of control over what they do, but are also being exposed to the nature of debating and various challenging issues that affect them.
This, in turn, can have a positive effect on the minds of younger people by conditioning them to think and act, from a younger age, in a more mature manner concerning how best to achieve their goals outside of typing an outburst on their next Facebook status.
For example, this year’s general election in the UK saw the largest amount of younger voters ever recorded. Likewise, movements over the last few years for younger people in this country, such as those involving university tuition fees and housing prices, have shown a clear determination and, importantly, successful efforts to get themselves heard.
International youth challenging convention
The fact that information is so much more accessible to the world, now allows the next generation of bright minds the chance to explore and create their own beliefs from a much younger age.
As mentioned above, there still should always be that other almost parental role that does push younger people in the right direction to let them learn how to harness and best apply any new-found passions and goals they may strive for.
The successes of youth rights though in the modern era has come as a direct result of the newly-found freedom and liberation of new ideas that are coming from younger people as the world evolves and continues to change.
Constant innovation and enabling younger people to be expressive is what keeps allowing the human race to continue to push the boundaries and also challenge these boundaries concerning what is right and wrong.
This is vital on an international scale as it can affect so many different cultural aspects on many levels. Whilst at a young age it still remains a struggle to impact many issues on a vast scale, domestically or internationally, the attempts to do so are at least opening the eyes of the older generation of this world to the fact that human progress and evolution remains alive and incredibly promising.
Mr Alhendawi’s Twitter session, could be another important moment for young people to have the chance to impact on society and, in turn, once again prove to the rest of the world that the next generation, and the next, and the next one after that, are those which keep expanding our minds for the betterment of our global society.
ROBERT PRITCHARD
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Robert Pritchard
Robert is a postgraduate actor and journalist from Liverpool, England. He studied at the University of Cumbria and has a wide-range of experience from a young age in Journalism ranging from getting pieces published for newspapers to earning air-time on regional radio.
