The Internet as it continually morphs to offer more opinionated topics, diverse graphics, world news, and opportunities to discuss current events, is dramatically changing the perception of democracy and its principles, particularly among the youth of the world. Digital access has helped bring the important issues of racism, poverty, prejudice, and the inequities of our presumed democratic system and all of its failures.
Young people are avid consumers of these digital forums, and have taken in droves to its ability to vent and voice opinions, and to relish in the presumed anonymity to speak out against the failures of our political and financial systems.
“Changing Citizenship in the Digital Age”, an essay by W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington, Center for Communication and Civic Engagement argues and compares two paradigms of the youth movement: on one side are youth that are active interested in community and civic engagement; and the other those that have completely disconnected for our democratic values and given up on the integrity of an honest and fair system. Digital media provides access to all of the world's problems, and what has become obvious is the world's democracies are beginning to "show signs of wear" (Bennett, 2008).
With power often comes abuse, and most of the democratic nations of the world have allowed their government and financial systems to become hijacked by power hungry politicians and financiers. The media, once presumed neutral, have become obvious skewed to one side or the other, which essentially invalidates them as reliable sources of information. Nowhere is this more obvious that the state of our current electoral process in the United States. Both sides, democratic and republican, have been bashing each other’s policies for the last eight years under the Obama Administration. During this time, we saw the rise of the Occupy Movement, an effort to overthrow the financial system, among other youth-driven discourse organizations.
Thus, young people have taken the Internet, and more specifically social media, to voice their opinions, and attempt to organize. This has been demonstrated through the dramatic increase of civic engagement including interests in community involvement, consumer activism, and concern for environment and economic injustice (p.2)
Yet at the same time, others have become completely disenfranchised from the system. In the United States, for example, millions of young college graduates have received their degrees, and are straddled with extreme student debt that they are unable to pay at absurd interest rates, and often end up taking part-time jobs that were previously filled by high school students. This group has little to no faith in the system, and to some degree, their futures and ability to advance in a declining society.
To compound the problem of disengagement, the decline and practical non-existence of civic courses both in high school and college (p.7), has led to a generational shift in which young citizens (p.8) have become further disinterested in the political process. One need only look to the civil disobedience and virtual overthrow of the existing political system in the 1960s to recognize how important young people are to the process.
The current presidential election in the U.S. has demonstrated the power of social media as a tool to both expose youth to the issues, but is also being used as tools to skew public opinion. (p.10). Donald Trump has essentially hijacked the process and is leading to an upheaval of public values through the use of Twitter. Hillary Clinton as well, is using Facebook, Twitter, and static websites to advance her economic and civic intentions should she win this election. Clearly, young people participating and volunteering on the various election committees are showing the candidates, and the world, the power of the Internet as a well-developed communication media.
Still, while this political chaos unfolds in the digital world, many young people see the political system as a joke, with players who are disingenuous and "faking it" (p.15). Bennett goes on to state that those governments who choose to ignore both sides, the involved and disenfranchised, run the risk of further dividing the sense of civic responsibility, thus forcing them to alternative political outlets to vent their frustrations (p.15).
This is where education, and more specifically, teachers, become more important than ever. Young people who attend high-school and college often take great interest in the subject matter when it is presented in a manner that offers teaching methods that are engaging. Bureaucratic school systems must release these educators to create innovative materials, and to be allowed to bring their owner personal experiences and opinions into the classroom in order to engage and inspire our youth. While no one can argue that some standardized education is required (that which ensures that young people can read & write, and understand the materials), the rest should be left to the imaginations and demands of the people, and it must be able to shift and evolve as our societies rapidly advance.
Bennett states quite clearly that unless all leadership, educators, public officials, journalists, and educational policymakers (p.21) get involved in this social disconnect, and start to encourage young people to be excited about public service, the obvious outcome will be continue to be young people becoming further disconnected from the political process. (p.21).
I am very quiet concerned for the state of affairs in the United States regarding the political and economic systems. Still the bright lights are the youth. My children inspire me greatly; I talk about them often in my college postings for Empire State College. My daughter has chosen to work for little more than minimum wage to help young people living in public housing advance their ability to read and write. My son is finishing his degree in political science, and is leaning heavily towards community service and activism rather than working form some level of government. Unlike the older generations of past who saw the young as destructive to their principles and values, I personally welcome the upheaval that is coming and have great confidence that they will make their mark and change our system to be more equitable for all of our citizens, not just those in positions of power and influence.
Reference:
Bennett, W. L. (2008). “Changing Citizenship in the Digital Age." Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth. Edited by W. Lance Bennett. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, Pg.1–24. doi: 10.1162/dmal.9780262524827.001
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