As the world becomes more digitized, its most enthusiastic adopters have been youth as young as ages 13 and above. Even though social media policies across the world mandate users to be 18 and above, this requirement is easily evaded. And teenagers are putting this early access to good use, as they gain significant exposure to debates on the burning issues of the world. Chief among them is the global climate crisis. To young individuals that will be inheriting an Earth ravaged by greed and selfishness of the human race, it is becoming an increasingly close reality for millenials, Gen Z and the generations that will follow them.
The velocity of social media discourse is giving teenagers insights into topics that mainstream political leaders will not talk about. Youth are now realizing the importance and success that collective action and organized demands have to achieve tangible results in societal transformation, which is a shift from the position that simply being aware of issues is sufficient. Political leaders can no longer afford to ignore this demographic, as they will form part of the future voter base. To give a sense of the influence that climate activism has on social media, the official United Nations Youth for Climate Action hands over their social media channels to different youth climate activists from time to time, extending their huge platform to these activists’ efforts so that they can leverage that reach to advocate with their national governments.
The youngest generation are increasingly referred to as ‘digital natives’. The networked nature of social media, where certain viral content repeatedly gets shared around until it gains critical mass and cements itself in the consciousness of a wide enough populace, is extremely beneficial for increasing both awareness and participation in environmental movements. As a study showed, the positive impact eventually dwindles over time, and therefore, the propensity of social media to drive large-scale change depends a lot on the specific stage of the protest cycle.
The main purpose of social media is connecting with other people who are similarly concerned, and who are looking for other people to involve in discouraging or disallowing governments or corporations to go ahead with certain environmental decisions that will allow indiscriminate utilization of natural resources. Social media content on topics of environmental conversation now involves not just information about movements, but increasingly specific data that allows people to monitor the quality of the air, water, solid waste pollution, forest fires, chemical or oil spills in waterways, illegal dumping, plastic menace, affected plants or animals, and then share this data with others. People also share real time videos and photos of these incidents happening locally – this documentation allows rapid response from various agencies responsible for the environment.
Because of social media, young children are now also overcoming the one hurdle that used to be unavoidable in the past: experience. Age now has very little correlation with the organizational ability or knowledge a climate activist might have. Teenagers can now connect with climate activists who have much more experience, trading insights about emerging issues or helping them forge careers in conservation, environment and the media. Even a peer-to-peer network within the same age group but with people from diverse multicultural backgrounds allows children to erase the experience deficit by gaining insights into climate conservation strategies in a vast array of contexts.
