Are "twittering" youth agents of positive change?

• Author: Kariza, Alanda

the United Nations World Youth Report 2007 stated that there are approximately 1.2 billion people--18 per cent of the entire world population--between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four living in the world. Youth is a powerful force for change and youth activism is on the rise, with a lot of young people taking action for social transformation. Youth are engaging with their communities and making their voices heard. This activism is being carried out through a variety of media and is conducted differently in nearly every country in the world. Young people can choose to hold rallies and protests on the streets, attend public hearings, or even organize grassroots movements within their communities. Since the Internet is used by 30 per cent of the world's population, as some estimates have it, it has also become a preferred tool for young people to foster positive change.

The term "social media" might be unfamiliar to some people. Facebook.com, the most popular social networking website, is the second most accessed website on the worldwide web. As of January 2011, Facebook.com had more than 500 million active users worldwide, and half of them log into the website everyday. Approximately 70 per cent of its users live outside of the United States. Other popular social networking websites include YouTube, Twitter, and MySpace. These websites allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content, where users can create a profile and share anything they want about themselves, including photos, videos, and web links. They can also play games with other users, listen to music, and become "fans" of artists who are also users of such social media websites.

According to a study done in 2008 by Forrester Research, young people spent most of their time on the Internet visiting social networking websites--it was a daily habit for at least a quarter of the young people who participated in the study. Recognizing the close ties of young people with social networking websites, a lot of their peers are accessing them to communicate their ideas and activities, including those aimed at catalysing positive social change. Social networking websites have a lot of features that are beneficial to spreading the word of youth activism.

Let's take Twitter as an example. Anyone can join Twitter for free, open an account, and share news through their account. On Twitter, any text--known as a "tweet"--can be shared, but it must contain 140 characters or less. This...