Reading Response: Youth Social Action – Building a global latticework through information and communication technologies

Conducted in 2002, this study looked to uses of information and communication technologies as tools to build connectivity and empower youth social action networks. 

One of the key points discovered by the researchers is  that “true communication technology becomes the interpersonal interaction between individuals; the hardware of that interaction simply serves to mediate that connection.  This important point often gets lost in the glow of new technologies”.  

In relation to Facbeook and Globalhood/Global Potential, this point cannot be lost.  First and foremost the youth and their experiences of building work plans and working in the bateys are central to the efficacy of building meaningful connectivity online via social networking sites.  

There is great potential for the youth activists to  build a Global Potential alumni network, one grounded in the offline shared experience of activism and action,  on Facebook that will help”connect one another online and in person,…[fostering] a feeling of ’strength in numbers’ a common space in which to [feel] comfortable and supported in their activist work”.

Another key point in the study that warrants attention is the recognition that online connectivity for youth often helps connect the “personal to the political” via peer-driven messages grounded in experience versus traditional, or “adult” mediums of social action.  

As we continue to look at ways to advise Global Potential, we should provide information on Global Youth Connect (where subjects were drawn from for this study) as a potential model and resource on ways in which the youth can document activist experience via various art forms.

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