#Article (Archive)

Youths and social media!

Dec 12, 2019, 3:13 PM

Today the planet has the largest-ever youth generation. Youth empowerment, the UN said, is essential for a sustainable future. Youths account for about 1.8 billion of the global population. With advances in science and tech, many youths nowadays spend a significant chunk of their time on social media platforms. Thus, social media has become one of most interactive sites especially when it comes to facilitating the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

Therefore, it is important for young people especially business owners to put social media to good use, to market and promote their products and services.

Now there are so many young people out there with good business ideas, but some of them lack the know-how and others the gumption to turn that idea into enterprise. Social media being what it is, if used correctly, we can see more of our youth doing great things in the business world.

That said, there are other young individuals who may not be entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial minded, and they may opt to work for someone instead. These youth however should be cautious about how they use social media on the job as well. Most youths often spend a lot of time on the Internet perusing Facebook and Instagram and sending text messages on WhatsApp and at times, what they post is nothing uplifting or anything to boost their value in the job market.

Young people therefore should refrain from posting negative things on social media sites, and instead, see how they can leverage social media to their advantage.

There must be something that you are passionate about, that you can use social media for, to advance yourself. Some youths love dance and drama and they may post some of their performances online. Who knows? A job or opportunity may await them in the cultural industries. Others love cooking and baking. Who knows? Perhaps you may have an opportunity to display your talents for your parish or your country. Perhaps you are into sports and you do it well. A national team may pick up on your skills.

The idea, whatever you do, is to use social media to leverage your talents, skills and abilities in your chosen field. Don’t just use social media to forward the negatives; but youth, please put social media to good use.

‘‘Everyone’s like sheep on social media; like, one person starts making noise, and everyone’s like, ‘Hey, yeah!’ and then you got a whole bunch of people making noise at you. ’’

Earl Sweatshirt