I know most of what’s written is destined to become fish and chip
wrapper (unless you write a blog that no-one reads) but before he’s
gone forever I’d like to reflect upon the wholly remarkable story of
Mathew What's-His-Chops.
A bright young work experience kid at facelessaccountants.com doomed as a filing drone, is suddenly asked to write about ‘digital media consumption behaviour’ amongst his “M8s”.
One bespectacled blink later, Matthew Whatever-His-Name-Was is
illuminating the ill-informed, dropping bombs of incendiary
understandings such as; “Boys watch more television when football is on”
(POW!!!)
Like insight napalm, white hot flashes tore through the head quarters of the automatons; “Teenagers listen to a lot of music”
(BAM!!!!)
And in the wake of this new magic they held aloft the boy and published these words; “Teenagers go to the cinema quite often”
(If there was a ‘smiley face’ equivalent for ‘stick your tongue in your
bottom lip and go 'uuurrrrrrrmmmmmm’ I would now employ it)
: )))) ?
If you want, you can read the full report that “Shook the City”
here… but don’t hold yer breath.
I mean no offence to Matthew, who seems a level headed young man, and wish him every success.
The sad revelation is not the proud flag-waving of finally (mis)understanding teenagers, but how rare it is to listen to them.
A positive outcome however, was a major news story where the teenager
in question hadn’t been accused of anything or the victim of anything.
Social media provides limitless opportunity to listen to teenagers, yet
Matthew Jibber-Jabber underlines we couldn’t be more out of touch with
them.
So did we learn anything, in the weeks since Matthew-a-geddon?
Last week a judge banned teenagers from a violent Manchester gang from
posting ‘group poses’ on facebook for threatening to shoot police.
(Job done m’lud, that’ll learn ‘em!)
Two weeks ago a 15-year-old was cleared of rape against an 11 year old,
after his defence produced her social network profiles as evidence. The
headlines implied Social Networking played a role.
(The children involved actually met in a youth club)
We’re stumbling clumsily along trying to understand and control how
teenagers use social media and digital technology as if we own it.
Without grasping the fact that this generation grew up with digital technology in their DNA.
2009 research (that involved more than a boy and his M8s) recorded
nearly 100% of coverage presents teenagers negatively focused on crime,
drugs and gangs.
In reality 5% of teenagers are responsible for all teenage crime (according to 2008 research, not conducted via text message).
If we only talk about the minority, that forms how we view the majority.
Talking about young people, but rarely listening to them, is becoming an increasingly dangerous paradox.
Of course there are some who are ahead of the curve, using modern tools to listen to young people effectively.
Childline recently ran the Spit It Out campaign (on MySpace, as part of
their Dubplate Drama sponsorship) appealing to young people’s talent
and ambitions, challenging them to create lyrics about issues that
matter to them, achieving impressive results, high levels of
participation and genuinely empowering youth voices on serious matters.
Penguin with
Spinebreakers, BBC3 with
LIVE Insight, Christian Aid with
Ctrl.Alt.Shift, Channel 4 with
Battlefront, The Cabinet Office and No 10 with
Bebo's Big Think, Diesel with
U:Radio and the Red
Bull Music Academy are also pushing boundaries, using the
tools at our disposal to engage young people.
So we’re not talking about any Matthew Robson business: these are
leading brands and organisations in youth engagement, co-creating
solutions that use social media and digital platforms to listen to a
large group of young people over a sustained period of time.
(And no they're not all
Livity campaigns.. Mostly)
Digital technology and social media are not mysteries we need young Mr.
Robson to explain. They represent the greatest chance we have to engage
with, listen to, and make a difference for millions of young people who
are using them, as part of their lives, not just as part of a PR report
or a marketing campaign.
If listening to one boy taught us anything, I hope we learned it was not enough.
Revolution Magazine
