Young people are now even becoming scared of each other. What can digital do about it?
by Antonio on 25/03/09 at 8:25 am
This article really depressed me.
Not only is the media making adults needlessly scared of teenagers, it’s having an impact on the teenagers themselves – they’re now becoming scared of each other.
Figures show more than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional newspapers in the past year (4,374 out of 8,629) were about crime. The word most commonly used to describe them was “yobs” (591 times), followed by “thugs” (254 times), “sick” (119 times) and “feral” (96 times).
As a result of the negative press, 80 per cent felt adults were more wary of them now than they had been a year ago. However, the most striking finding, according to the research, was that many were now more wary of boys of their own age.
This is so frustrating. Anyone that’s worked with young people knows how much potential they have and how wrong it is they’re so demonised by the media.
What can we do about this? Can digital / educational projects make an impact? How can we create projects which help and support young people in showing their potential?
C4 Education, Mediasnackers, Plings and c21Vox are all orgs I know that are doing good things. Who else? How do we get more of these projects going on a mass scale?
Liam
Mar 25th, 2009
Hi Tone! Good point.
Pete Ashton
Mar 25th, 2009
It’s not just the words used but the context. I remember when I was about 10 the early 80s riots were happening (Brixton, Toxteth, etc) and my mum had to explain to me that “youths” just meant young people and not thuggish rioters as I had assumed from the way the news reporters used the word.
Antonio
Apr 1st, 2009
It’s funny – “youths” still has a negative connotation doesn’t it? Although it’s not used much as a term anymore.
I always use the term “young people” when referring to anyone under 18 as for me it’s the most respectful – it also contains within it the expression that they are actually people and will be the ones who’ll be teachers, doctors and politicians in 10 years. We quite often forget that..
DK
Apr 12th, 2009
It’s a dire shame that some lazy reporting is having such an impact…
I’m obviously from the camp that the tide can be turned through the use of pro-social-media projects
Many thanks for the link-love my friend!
Anthony Tull
Apr 14th, 2009
There is a person centered thinking tool, which I thinks put respect for a person at the center, it is called ‘Like & Admire’. People often get told what they do wrong, which provided it is done in a pleasant manor is good enough but I think it should be turned on its head and we should tell people, in particalar children, teenagers and young people – that is to tell the young what we think is good about them. The Autistic Resource Base @ Lord Williams Lower School uses this tool but calls it ‘Star of the Week’ and has used it on staff as well. I saw this when I visited and liked seeing it action. I think all schools should do this with thier class groups.
Many Thanks
Anthony Tull
Antonio Gould
Apr 19th, 2009
Thanks for the heads up Anthony – I’ll definitely check that out.
stevieflow
Apr 23rd, 2009
Hi Antonio
Good points
For the past 18 months or so we have been monitoring the RSS feeds from local newspapers for stories that are positive about young people. This is via a combination of RSS / Yahoo Pipes / Google Reader – http://www.plings.co.uk/news.php
It is quite intensive/manual to do so. We are looking at more automated ways to filter.. or even tools to crowdsource the tagging – such as http://www.contenttagger.org/
Thanks
Steven
Antonio
Apr 26th, 2009
Hi Steven,
Absolutely brilliant – what a great idea!
Would love to find out more about this – will check the websites out in more detail.
Great stuff!
Ross
Jul 28th, 2010
Hmm I am a young person – not a yob though. I am now fearful of other teens my age and older. Groups even younger. I think tackling the problem head on with larger penalties for crimes such as GBH and assaults. There are no local police patrols in our area. They may have potential etc. I think if we can place more police on the streets even in ‘quieter’ areas it will help people feel much more confident.
However your talking ‘digital’. I think that it needs to be drummed into kids nowadays that it’s unacceptable and stop it from happening right from the start. It’s no use trying to rehabilitate teens now with ‘problems’ with other teens. Teens and/or yobs will act a little more respectfully towards adults and I agree that the press is hard on them but they think they rule the other ‘teens’ on the streets. What part of the small community you live in can be a knife in the back or not for a teen nowadays.
I think thatnks to people that have been raising awareness of this: adults (30-45ish) now realise this and have gained more respect. I think now its the other teenagers that do no wrong that need the help along with the over 50s.
Good Luck though
Antonio Gould
Aug 4th, 2010
Thanks for your comments Ross. I was very lucky to have grown up in a place and a time when my life wasn’t at risk every day.
I do wonder how different things would have been for me if I had been permanently scared of the other young people around me – it’s a frightening thought.
It’s good to know that you feel adults are paying more attention these days. There’s still a long way to go though.
Good luck with everything.
Antonio