There’s an increasing number of forums, conferences and community events that can serve as platforms for young people to participate in, share their opinions, as well as develop and polish social and organizational skills. But very often the youth are not motivated to attend this kind of events.

And as educators and parents, it’s our duty to get more youth involved in such useful activities. But the question is ‘How can we attract students/youth to get involved in more social activities and communities?’

Here are 3 reasons why youth should be more involved in such activities:

1. Jobs. Everyone wants to get a well-paid job. Today, a young professional who, above all, is also digitally literate definitely has an advantage in any workplace. Moreover, tech and internet policy-making will be a job for humans and not machines, so this is another good reason for the youth to get involved in forums and conferences that focus on digital-related topics.

2. Friends. Human cooperation is extremely important not only for getting work done but also for the feeling of belonging to a community of people who share your interests. Moreover, with the increase in automation, in the near future, it is predicted that more people will start working from home or will not have to work at all, raising the issue of social isolation. The more young people actively participate in community activities today, the better they are equipped to deal with the challenges that the digital future will bring.

3. Impact. Very often young people are not motivated to put in extra time and effort because they don’t see the final result, they don’t know who is being impacted and whose lives are being changed through their hard work. Participating in forums and conferences as a part of the Youth community has its long-term benefits as projects and activities run by the community usually bring visible results and directly impact the lives of people involved in the projects. This helps to deepen the feelings of empathy and accountability, and thus, increase motivation. 

How else can we incentivize the youth to take an active position in life? 

P.S. I want to give special thanks to the Youth IGF community for running the workshops throughout the five days forum and sharing useful information on the challenges and benefits of involving youth in the community projects. For more information about the Youth IGF and to read the messages from the Youth, click here. 

Margarita Lukavenko