BACKGROUND

We started this project with an interest in how “Generation Z” perceives the American identity. A recent phenomenon in our generation is the civic engagement through protests. All of us have been to at least one march for one of the many issues that we care about (climate change, women’s rights, gun control).

 

As we did research on these social movements, we recognized that many of the leaders were our age or even younger, especially within the climate movement. Their ability to gain momentum and popularity was remarkable because the youth voice is often silenced due to their inability to vote/participate in politics. 

 

From this point, we were interested in determining how these youth movements were able to gain traction and build up enough to lead worldwide protests of millions of people. The answer here was social media, specifically Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For example, Greta Thunberg raised awareness through her Twitter hashtag #FridaysForFuture, which led to thousands of students all over the world striking on Fridays.

 

This led us to our presentation idea, which showcases the relationship between the youth leaders and their social media use as well as the general urgency of the issue they are advocating for.

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To learn more about our research for this project, follow one of the links below.