The difficulty of convincing a bunch of apathetic teenagers to unite and do something together is nothing to jeer at.
Teenagers are naturally uninterested in things that aren’t directly related to them. Even if one person has the audacity to stand up for something, become active in a crusade against a societal evil, or make a simple change, he or she is often excluded for being, well, different.
For years, there has been a fight to have teens become active in their society and to have them take full advantage of the vigor they possess. Imagine if you could have a group of teenagers raise money for a homeless shelter with as much enthusiasm as they have toward attending a party on a Friday night.
We have the tools, they’re in our belt. It just hasn’t been brought to our attention how useful each of us can really be.
Facebook has become an integral part of society. But it is not just a website to chat with your friends and send “pokes.” Facebook has become a call to activism.
The website is a tool to reach thousands of people by simply stating your message and waiting for those who seem to care to come around. Facebook has brought together people for serious events, such as an effort to rally for causes like breast cancer, and events that are pure fun, like a snowball fight for hundreds of D.C. adults.
You don’t have to be a professional event planner either. There’s no invitation cost, no addresses to collect. All it takes is a few clicks.
If one person can create an event on Facebook and send an invitation to all of his or her friends, most likely a few will respond. And when it shows up in those people’s News Feeds, a few more may become interested. All of the sudden, the actions of one can cause hundreds to join. All it takes to make something successful is creativity in presentation.
Teens have opinions. Why do you think I enjoy writing this column so much? We have stances, we have ideas, and we have passions. It’s a shame that we have to pin them down inside our heads just because we don’t have anywhere else to keep them. The key to getting a teen to be involved is to guide them to the outlet, and sometimes this takes a little leading. That’s what I’m here to do. I think that there’s potential for this generation. Let’s do something.
If Facebook is such an easy way to reach out to people, why aren’t we using it more? It is the one place that you can almost guarantee thousands of people can access every day. Facebook can be the cause; it is up to us to be the effect.
Allison Siegel can be reached for comment at [email protected]