I remember scrolling through Twitter one day and reading a post regarding older teachers interacting with technology. It went something like... 'Teachers can have Ph.D. in various subjects, but when it comes to working a projector, they're totally lost.'
Those teachers this post was referring to are ones that sit and speak to their class, spouting off statements like 'you all are too young for this, but...' and 'when I was your age, we did this instead...'. Yet, nowadays it very well seems as if those specific teachers and other older adults, have begun to miss out on another way humans can communicate their ideas, rather than standing before a lecture hall or seated before a podium.
The majority of today's generation in the various first world countries grew up with technology at their fingertips. So it is no wonder that when they sat down to write a paper or finish a math problem, they used a computer as their dictionary and a calculator as their problem solver.
Today's generation of pre-teens, teens, and even young adults in high school, college and just now entering the workforce have begun to grow impatient. Maybe it was somewhere near the 90-second rice or having access to high-speed internet, yet either way, these upcoming and maturing children and adults have formed their very own impatient universe.
Though access to such technology has constructed a very large wall between many young adults and their older, respected elders, it seems as if this exact gap has allowed for these citizens to grow and mature in an almost unheard of way; one that is neither wrong nor right but remarkably and uniquely their own.
However, this specific impatient attitude has fostered a unique way to protest. With the rise in activism and the ever-growing social media platforms throughout the internet, young adults and teenagers no longer have to just voice their opinion to the community around them, praying to be heard, but are screaming from the keys of their iPhones and the filters on their Snapchat videos, spreading their words like fire over the internet. This specific activism allows for a hashtag to become a movement and a color to become a symbol - something no one could have even dreamt of 20 years ago.
Even though many others have valid arguments that are against the overwhelming and sometimes intoxicating world that is the internet, the uprising in activism is something that would cease to exist without this specific realm. With high schoolers being able to speak out on gun control, while starting a movement on Facebook, and women everywhere getting to raise their voice over that of their oppressors with one motivational hashtag, the use of social media and the internet is a force to be reckoned with.
This force not only lets the activists speak their mind, but also find a whole other supportive community entirely. These movements build rapidly faster with the help of the internet, social media, and various smart phone apps. This monumental type of support gathers the whole world in unison by one simple click of a 'like' or a 'repost'. These young individuals are speaking their powerful mind, behind a small screen, showcasing how large of a force they are to be reckoned with... Especially while the whole world and beyond is watching them.