Youth civic engagement through digital advocacy on social media: practical implications for platforms, educators and policymakers

As digital platforms continue to grow as vehicles of societal progress, they are increasingly becoming a place for forms of expression and calls to action. Youth, as a typically marginalized group in political and change-making spheres, increasingly utilize these spaces to find other like-minded youth and turn a conversation into action. Herani and Pranandari examine these spaces, finding the strengths and weaknesses of digital advocacy and applying practical implications for platforms, educators, and policy-makers.Many countries are facing challenges of social inequities such as poverty, wage inequalities, health issues, climate change, environmental degradation, harassment, racism, and more. These significantly impact the people in these societies, including youth. However, youth are under-represented in change-making spaces and opinions are deemed irrelevant. Youth struggle for their voices to make a concrete impact due to a lack of access, and as such express their views through methods of protest such as rallies, boycotts, and camping out. Herani and Pranandari cite positive youth development theory; it is essential to provide youth with the opportunity to engage with society, which will lead to personal development, better well-being, personal growth and social understanding.If youth have mutually beneficial engagements with society and institutions, they will more constructively grow their self, relations with family and community, and further understand civil society. Youth development programs exist to fulfill this purpose, often done with sports. However, Herani and Pranandari assert that engagement with and on social media is a de facto youth development program and can fulfill this purpose.Social media platforms such as X, Instagram and TikTok are increasingly becoming vehicles of social engagement, often the first source of information and entertainment for millions of users. As such, social media is also a platform wherein youth can express their political views, counter misinformation, and engage with other users through debates, groups, and collaboration. The #MeToo movement is a recent example of a such campaign, where users contributed their experiences and voices to a dialogue that led to concrete social change.Social media is increasingly becoming a method of mobilization, political debate, and political engagement, especially with increased affordability and accessibility over time. As such, social media platforms have become spaces for social entrepreneurship, addressing social problems with collaborative solutions and prioritizing social value over economic growth. On these platforms, youth feel their voices have an impact and believe they can create change, creating a space for themselves as change-makers. The authors highlight the importance of this in spaces such as rural areas, where limited resources would traditionally inhibit the people’s voice.Herani and Pranandari describe two forms of online civic engagement; promotive and prohibitive. Promotic engagement refers to expressing new ideas or methods of operation for existing organizations and institutions, while prohibitive engagement refers to addressing malpractice and harm. Both can lead to constructive change with enough visibility and pressure on institutions to evolve, offering innovative solutions and challenging societal norms.However, Herani and Pranandari also observe the challenge of translating the commitment of youth to civic engagement into tangible action. Youth must not only actively and morally engage with information online but also know how to competently use social media platforms to engage with like-minded users, create connections, and avoid backlash. As such, the authors found a reluctance to undertake civic engagement online, not only due to hesitancy around the value and accuracy of their opinions but also due to perceived backlash and fearing the destruction of existing social networks due to differing views. Thus, the two largest obstacles facing youth and civic engagement are a lack of digital competency and fear of negative perception.The practical undertakings of this investigation have several key implications:For platforms:For educators:For policy-makers:Social media engagement is rapidly becoming an essential vehicle to become aware of critical underlying issues and become part of creating a solution. A more informed, politically engaged, and morally responsible generation has emerged as the presence of social media has only continued to grow. Youth feel they can have a voice on social media, and have created concrete change and accountability using that voice. While youth face some obstacles in expressing these opinions, overall significant presence and change has occurred thanks to these platforms.This review is based on “Promote or inhibit? Examining the influence of youth digital advocacy on digital social entrepreneurship” by Rina Herani and Anggraeni Pranandari, published in the Social Enterprise Journal.