Technology in the Youth Community - Essay Example

Youth Community and Technology Technology has resulted in numerous changes in the world today. The present generation experiences the best and most advanced technology there has ever been throughout history. People use technology for different purposes; and the use of technology continues to increase presently. Technology plays an important role in the manufacturing industry, communication, business, and in human interactions. Nonetheless, apart from these, technology today also plays a crucial role in youth communities, which comprise different youth that come together in order to achieve a common goal. This essay discusses how youth communities today utilize technology in order to sustain the community and maintain their identity. Special focus is on the UK Youth Climate Coalition. Youth communities make important contribution to development in a society. These mainly are forums or platforms that enable young people in the society to acquire different skills that are vital for effective participation in society. Different youth communities are concerned with different aspects in society. While some youth communities are concerned with climate, others might focus on drugs, education, gender, discrimination, rights and freedoms, politics, youth empowerment, and youth leadership, among others. Overall, youth communities today have a positive impact in society, as well as on the lives of the participating youth. Apart from developing various skills, the participating youth are also exposed to various opportunities, and learn to be responsible team players and leaders. Owing to the benefits of youth communities, it is therefore, important that they are sustained, and their collective identity is maintained. Nonetheless, technology remains a major way that promotes the identity and sustenance of youth communities. The UK Youth Climate Coalition is a UK-based youth organization formed in the year 2008 and comprises youth between the ages of 18 and 29. Run by unpaid volunteers, the UK Youth Climate Coalition focuses on the area of climate change and envisions a world in which the environment is well protected, clean, safe and sustainable for all humanity (UK Youth Climate Coalition Web). In order to realize this vision, the UK Youth Climate Coalition focuses on important areas such as education, energy, jobs and the economy, transport, as well as the international community; as these act as stepping stones to making the organization’s vision become a reality. As a considerably large and popular youth community, the UK Youth Climate Coalition embraces technology in order to ensure efficient operations, as well as its popularity and sustenance. This youth organization was established in only seven years ago, meaning that it is falls in the era of increased use of technology. In addition, the youth community consists of youth under the age of 29; and the youth in this age category are believed to be technology-savvy. Basing on these reasons therefore, one expects that the UK Youth Climate Coalition then should come out as a youth community with high level of technology use. Nonetheless, this is true, as the UK Youth Climate Coalition employs technology in its operations, thus maintaining the identity of the youth community since its establishment, as well as ensuring the sustenance of the youth community. Technology use by the UK Youth Climate Coalition has resulted in various benefits. First, this has been instrumental the promotion of social action. The UK Youth Climate Coalition has experienced increased social action in the recent years, and this can be highly attributed to the use of technology in the youth community. The increased social action boosts and maintains the collective identity of the youth community, and is an important way of ensuring that the community is operational and sustained. According to Lombardo, Zakus, and Skinner, the use of information and communication technologies by youth communities promotes connection, action, and sustainability of the youth communities (363). The UK Youth Climate Coalition can be seen to have achieved sustainability in the sense that it is still operational and growing stronger, seven years after its establishment. In addition, different projects have been unveiled in the youth organization, which are aimed at working toward the achievement of the vision of the group. Through the use of technology, the UK Youth Climate Coalition has grown in various dimensions. For instance, the membership of this group today has increased as compared to the past years. By the year 2011, the UK Youth Climate Coalition already had more than 2250 members, only two years after its formation. In addition, the nature of projects and activities that the members undertook grew in complexity. This shifted from Climate Matches to attending delegations and involvement with the European Union. Nonetheless, this youth community utilizes the broad technology ranging from the internet-based technologies to older options artistic media and telephone, among others. In one survey, Lombardo, Zakus, and Skinner explored the use of ICT for social action, basing on two different youth organizations. The results of the study showed that technology played an important role in connection, which was core to the two youth organizations. In addition, the results pointed out that the two youth organizations utilized a variety of communication strategies, but face-to-face communication was ranked the best strategy. On the negative, various access barriers were identified as major limits to technology use for social action (367-9). Some aspects of this research can be seen to apply to the case of the UK Youth Climate Coalition. First, this youth organization considers connectedness of the members as highly essential in order to foster social action. Therefore, this utilizes technology in order to ensure connection of members. For instance, this youth organization has an up-to-date and functional website, where members and potential members can learn about the organization, news in the organization, as well as various underway and upcoming projects of the organization. The organization also has a telephone number through which the management can be reached for any issues or inquiries. This therefore, promotes connection among the members of the organization, and helps to expose the organization to non-members, who might become members upon learning about the organization. Technology including computers and internet acts as an empowering tool for youth, thus its use in youth community initiatives ensures the success of the initiatives. Valaitis conducted a case study to investigate the perceptions of youth about their use of internet and computers in their school-based community development project. Results showed that when youth use computers and internet for communication with adults, they experienced less anxiety, thus having control when communicating with adults. Additionally, results pointed out that internet and computers raised the perception of youth of their social status, increased level of efficiency, and resulted in high participation level of youth in their community. Overall, the study makes a conclusion that computers and internet are empowering tools to youth, thus their use should be encouraged especially in their community initiatives (Web). The UK Youth Climate Coalition has a functional Facebook page that provides the needed publicity for the organization, thus maintaining its identity. Since many youth are known to embrace technology, this page has received close to 6000 likes. On this page, the youth share freely important issues that relate to climate, and make their concerns and demands pertaining climate change and environment be known. In addition, various upcoming projects are projected on the Facebook page, and the videos of proceedings of past projects are also posted on the page. Nonetheless, a Facebook page is an important technology aspect that this youth organization uses, as this encourages youth to express themselves more freely than they would in other platforms. In addition, being a universal platform, the Facebook page of the youth organization is visible to all individuals across the world, thus helping to publicise the organization and strengthen its identity. Overall, this makes an important contribution to the social action and identity of the youth organization. The use of technology has been of great use for the UK Youth Climate Coalition to promote advocacy. Advocacy with regard to climate issues is one of the reasons why the youth organization was developed. Therefore, through its Website, Twitter and Facebook page, videos and recordings, among others, the UK Youth Climate Coalition practises advocacy. Such efforts therefore, help to sustain the organization, as advocacy is part of its mandate. Thackeray and Hunter argue that most countries have side-lined the youth when it comes to policy making issues, yet most of the policies made apply to the youth. Therefore, the only way for youth to participate in advocacy for such issues is through the use of technology, as it offers different platforms for the youth to express themselves (578). Technology has also increased the rate of access to information. Therefore, members of the UK Youth Climate Coalition can access information fast through their Email or organization’s Facebook page. Furthermore, important knowledge on climate issues can be found online, and this is paramount, as members should be knowledgeable in climate issues. In conclusion, youth organizations play an important role in society today. This contributes to the development of the participating youth and the society at large. The use of technology in youth organizations has numerous benefits for the organization. Most importantly, this promotes the collective identity of the organization and sustains the organization. This paper has shown how use of technology is important to the UK Youth Climate Coalition in terms of promotion of collective identity and sustaining the organization. Apart from increasing social action, technology use in this organization also boosts advocacy, participation of members, and connectedness among members. Therefore, more youth communities should embrace greater use of technology in order to experience success in their initiatives. Works Cited Lombardo Charlotte, Zakus David and Skinner Harvey. “Youth social action: building a global latticework through information and communication technologies.” Health Promotion International, 17 (4): 363-371, 2002. doi: 10.1093/heapro/17.4.363 Thackeray Rosemary and Hunter MaryAnne. “Empowering Youth: Use of Technology in Advocacy to Affect Social Change.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15, 575–591. 2010. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01503.x UK Youth Climate Coalition. 2014. Web. Valaitis Ruta. “Computers and the Internet: Tools for Youth Empowerment.” Journal of Medical Internet Research, 7(5): e51. 2005. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7.5.e51 Read More