Post in Social Citizens Paper Released

May 01 20:17 UTC

This was indeed really interesting. Here's my post on it (video etc in post
http://paulcanning.blogspot.com/2008/04/kids-are-alllrreight.html)

Social Citizens' is a really fascinating paper from the Social Citizens
project, sponsored by the Case Foundation. It's about young people
(Millennials) and how they are using online tools to connect to, initiate and
run causes  the flip-side of the MSMs obsession with the negatives about the
young and the Internet:
    In October 2007, Thomas Friedman wrote in The New York Times that young
people are members of Generation Q. He meant Q for quiet, and inactive, on the
important social questions of the day. The celebrated American globalist could
not have been more wrong. This generation is making noise, whether adults can
hear it or not.
You may have read echoes of this attitude in the tabloids (the 'hoodie' image
above features prominently in the Daily Express).
The authors are very impressed with the scale and depth of youth engagement
with change using the new technology in what they report on - just think of
their impact on corporate behaviour. They go so far to compare them to the
'greatest generation' who fought WW2, and I don't think that's over the top
given what we face with climate change:
    One example of Millennials online activism is Causes on Facebook. In the
spring of 2007, Project Agape posted its Causes application on Facebook. Within
six months, more than 30,000 Causes were created on the social networking site,
supporting over 12,000 existing nonprofit organizations. A brief survey of
Causes on Facebook reveals an array of mainstream, apple-pie efforts, typical
of Millennial activism. They are more practical than poetic, more passionate
and less ideological in their activism efforts. Few could argue with the
worthiness of helping orphans in China, trying to find a cure for AIDS and ALS,
eradicating breast cancer, and helping underprivileged children learn to read.
    However, the Causes application is different from traditional approaches
because users are drawn to the cause first, then the institution (or group of
volunteers if no formal institution exists). Joe Green, CEO of Causes on
Face-book, describes the network interaction for causes this way: There could
be 1,000 causes aiming to help SaveDarfur.org with lots of different leaders
and networks and lots of people reaching out in many ways.
The paper documents a stack of other examples; 'Invisible Children' is one,
which grew from four young guys' visit to Northern Uganda.
Preview:
[55' Movie on Google. 'In the spring of 2003, three young Americans traveled to
Africa in search of such as story. What they found was a tragedy that disgusted
and inspired them. A story where children are weapons and children are the
victims. The "Invisible Children: rough cut" film exposes the effects of a 20
year-long war on the children of Northern Uganda. These children live in fear
of abduction by rebel soldiers, and are being forced to fight as a part of
violent army. This wonderfully reckless documentary is fast paced, with an MTV
beat, and is something truly unique. To see Africa through young eyes is
humorous and heart breaking, quick and informative - all in the very same
breath. See this film, you will be forever changed.']
This is one of the most moving documentaries I've seen in years.
The authors see a flip side though, and speculate that this mightn't all be
good:
    Specic policy outcomes are not a signicant component for most Millennial
activist efforts. Social capital is the new commerce and the end result of many
cause-related efforts spearheaded by young people.
    Social action is a safe place to express a personal identity, and is much
safer and easier than in the political arena with its inherent conict and most
often less-than-lofty outcomes. Danah Boyd (UofC Berkeley) explains, We are
living in a time of the elongation of childhood where kids are kept out of
public life and only glimpse it through the mass media. Their lives are so
heavily regulated and controlled, they dont see a public world outside of the
celebritization of political candidates.
    Is it possible to envision a very large generation of citizens who lead
their lives at a great distance from government, even lives infused with
causes, volunteering and a hopeful outlook about the world. Can government
really be irrelevant to their lives, and, if so, is this a good thing for
society? Is it important that young people are engaged in public policy
advocacy? Is our tendency to connect only with like-minded people using our on
line and on land social networks a good thing for activism or a critical
bottleneck to the effective scaling for causes? Are social change institutions
critical to the future of Social Citizens and their causes or are they becoming
old-century anachronisms of top-down hierarchies that cant survive much longer?
What draws their involvement? Conflicts like Israel/Palestine get less
attention from this group as they're less clear, more grey, than ones like
Darfur.
But one thing the authors don't do in discussing negative disengagement from
'government' is make the connections with the Obama campaign  perhaps because
it's partisan or just because the campaign's happening now  which exists
because of a/the Internet and b/the same sort of new bottom-up/shared/devolved
organisations which young people are establishing. This has seen an enormous
increase in active political engagement by young people - and voting - though
what will happen to 'the movement' once he's elected President is a moot point.
What they do have is some ideas:
    Political participation can and should be more meaningful than political
campaigns, such as the possibility of careers in public service and
policymaking, including serving on committees and task forces for local
government efforts.
    A major cautionary note for anyone interested in engaging young people in
conversations about the role of government and policy issues is that these
conversations must be authentic and spin-free, or youth will quickly tune out.
Now there's a big take-away for the oldies. And don't think this is just
America. Most UK young people use social networks.

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