Introducing the youth-led critical reflection and media literacy resource
How strong are your media literacy skills?
What are the pros and cons of social media?
How often do you vocally question injustice?
These are just some of the questions the Youth2030 Young People’s Committee asked as they introduced their brand new resource. Stop! Wait a Minute is a youth-led critical reflection and media literacy tool.
The resource was created with Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions at its heart. It will support youth workers and young people as they engage with global media content in our fast-paced and ever-changing world.
Held as part of One World Week 2024, the conversation challenged participants to think more deeply about their online engagement. Social media shapes the way we see the world and critical reflection is the key to understanding how!
What’s in your backpack?
After getting started with a grounding and mindfulness exercise, the young people who joined us were asked to think about the things they carry with them. Our way of looking at the world is shaped by our experiences and by things like our culture, religion, education, and upbringing. It is also shaped by important forces like our identity, personality, reactions, and conflicts. All of this is what we carry in our personal backpack. Being aware of our own potential biases is a key part of being media literate.
Just because something goes viral doesn’t mean that it’s true
Content shared online is designed to elicit a response: joy, fear, anger, sadness, envy. And it is shared through the lens of what is in each individual’s own personal backpack. We must ask ourselves, how does this content make me feel? What is the context in which it was shared? What is the purpose of the information? Getting into the habit of asking ourselves these questions will help us engage more critically with online media.
Young people on the Zoom were asked to think of ways to check if a media source is accurate. Some of their suggestions included:
- Checking who is presenting the content
- Using a reverse image search tool
- Finding out if the information came from a reputable news source
- Checking to see if the person sharing the content is qualified to do so
- Finding other sources to see if the information matches
Considering social media using PLiNGs
Next, the group was asked to think about the PLiNGs (personal, local, national, and global) framework for considering the media they consume.
- Personal: How does this make me feel? How does consuming this content affect me personally?
- Local: Social media can be a fantastic tool for finding and connecting with your community and discovering different perspectives around you
- National: With elections on everyone’s mind, we talked about how social media can keep people informed but is also a source of misinformation and can make issues seem more divisive
- Global: Social media connects us to issues all over the world that affect us all, but it’s easy to get caught up in a stream of negativity and bias
When it comes to social media, who holds the power?
The group was asked, how often do we consider who holds the power when it comes to the media we consume online? Individuals may be the ones to create and share content, but during our discussion it became clear that it doesn’t stop there. Parents may control what platforms their children access, how often, and for how long. Influencers tell us what to buy, what to think, and who to vote for. Ads influence our spending and consumption. Algorithms control who sees what content and how often. Social media companies answer to shareholders and billionaire CEOs. None of these are neutral.
Social media & your body
We all know social media has positive and negative impacts on your mind. Watching something funny can make us laugh and feel good. Other kinds of content can make us feel bad about ourselves. But have you ever thought about how social media can affect your body? For example, flashing images may cause someone with a seizure disorder to become unwell. The addictive nature of scrolling may impact our sleep schedules. Stress and anxiety caused by what you see and read can be felt in your whole body.
People vs. Big Tech
People vs. Big Tech is a growing, global movement fighting for a different digital future. The key focus of the movement is to enact laws that will make our world safer. Guest speaker Aisha Alameen Betro, who took part in a recent event in London, explained its purpose. Put simply, people need to be protected from the negative implications of using social media in a world where using it is often no longer a choice.
Watch this space!
Stop! Wait a Minute, the critical reflection and media literacy resource, has a focus on wellbeing. It was created to support as well as educate youth workers and young people when it comes to social media, not to discourage. The tool is currently being designed and will be available to download soon!
Since 2020, The National Youth Council of Ireland’s Youth 2030: Global Youth Work programme has welcomed a group of young people to support a strong youth participation movement around global justice. You can find out more about the committee and its work here.
One World Week and the Youth 2030 programme are supported by our funders Irish Aid and our partners Maynooth University, Trócaire, and Concern Worldwide. The Youth Summit was supported by Fairtrade Ireland and the Communications Workers Union.
