Jessica

Vozel

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November 12, 2007

Hurray for Facebook Crusades! Someone Tell Tom Friedman Youth Activism is Alive

For far too long, the assertion that young people are politically apathetic and selfish has remained virtually unchallenged. Admittedly, even I have lamented my generation’s political indifference and bemoaned our tendency to create Facebook groups about social justice issues rather than taking tangible, “real world” action. Rather than protesting on campus quads, students passively blog their political opinions from their dorm rooms – and still more don’t even do that. 

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman agrees, recently labeling us “Generation Q” for “quiet” and insisting that substantial change can only be realized “by young voters, speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers” not by online petitions or “Facebook crusades.”

This past week, however, American young people challenged the stereotype and have proven me – and all the former-hippie, Baby Boomer naysayers – wrong. Last weekend, 5,500 students of high-school and college age (the majority under age 21) gathered at the University of Maryland campus for Power Shift 2007, a conference and rally on climate change. Students from around the country gathered to hear influential environmental speakers and discuss ways of advocating for legislative action. 

Then, on Wednesday at Columbia University, five students began a hunger strike to alert university administrators of their concerns about the curriculum and its lack of multicultural coverage, about the lack of funds available for both the Ethnic Studies program and for campus multicultural affairs, and about the proposed campus expansion into Harlem that would displace 5,000 residents. They say they are prepared to camp out in tents until Thanksgiving if necessary. 

Overwhelmingly, I find that young people do care, but are disillusioned by those who assume they don’t and by a lack of examples of change initiated by people their age. When I discuss political or social issues with my class of college freshman, there is no shortage of fiery opinions, but they are reluctant to acknowledge that transformation is possible. They fervently identify injustices perpetrated by the power-wielding older generations, but punctuate their passion with a shrug and a dismissive “it’s just the way things are.” 

Apathy and laziness don’t seem to be sufficient explanations for this phenomenon. Rather, they have been hardened by events like the ones at the University of Maryland and Columbia that seem, on the surface, to do very little. Certainly George W. Bush will not sign the Kyoto Treaty tomorrow because 5,500 young people (many not even of voting age) held a conference. So what’s the point?

Young people are keenly aware that they are, in fact, young, and do not hold the power.  Compound that with the fact that despite their efforts, they are nonetheless labeled as indolent and self-centered by those that do. The very fact that politicians rarely address the issues that specifically affect young people shows that even the loudest of shouts is absorbed by the political machine before it ever reaches their intended ears. 

But the Internet is the territory of the young. Although critics like Friedman describe the Internet as a black hole of sorts, where discussion happens but is never translated into concrete action, this is the space that young people know best and in which they can make significant contributions, even though the surface value of their efforts is easily overlooked. 

Because of the Internet’s obvious influence on young people, it is becoming increasingly common for presidential candidates to create MySpace pages and YouTube videos. Although politicians are often deaf to the shouts of the young after they are elected to office, when running, social networking sites become an important hotbed for political discussion.

Along with recognizing the potential of the Internet for bolstering political discussion and action, it would help if students were told not of the failures of those who acted before them but of the successes. For example, protesting students at Columbia cite their predecessors’ success as a significant influence on their decision to take action for what they believe in. In an article for the Huffington Post, Courtney Martin quotes one of the students as saying, “We know this isn't 1968, but we do see ourselves as in connection with previous movements – elsewhere, and especially, on this campus." 

Perhaps if they felt they were being heard, then young people would be more likely to speak.   

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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