Oman celebrated Youth Day on October 26. While it is an occasion to honour the energy, ambitions and achievements of the young, it is also an opportunity to understand what the world looks like through their eyes.
Across the world, the images of young people asserting themselves against a system which they see as being pitted against them have been flooding mainstream and social media.
Larger questions of why now and why at all, beyond the obvious, are harder to answer. In many ways, it is because the young just do not see the world the way ‘adults’ do.
Every generation grows up in a world that they did not create. Around the world, multiple examples showcase this, whether it is the European world war period or the anti-colonial nationalist struggles in which millions of young people collectively sacrificed careers and lives for the cause.
Today, the scenario is a little different. For one, the future for the young, whether Gen Z or later, is a process. For boomers and millennials, it was a destination. That job, that house, that family and that retirement were self-serving goals toward which they aspired and relentlessly worked.
Today, the deadlines seem shorter. There are always uncertainties lurking just around the corner. They are told that global temperatures will rise to an unprecedented high each year, the stock market may crash any day, and of course, AI will just take over within the decade.
All this dystopia makes it difficult to plan life around anything but contingencies. Plans seem to revolve around a year or two at the most. Such uncertainty makes it impossible for youngsters to focus on larger questions of purpose, destiny and philosophy that characterised so much thought and writing in the past.
And so, the solution seems to be to live in the moment. We see this in the bite-sized exuberance with which social occasions are marked, like there is no tomorrow. Large-scale cultural events, concerts, travel to lesser-known destinations - all of this reflects a world whose endgame is uncertain, so, as they say, carpe diem, or grab the moment.
Social media adds to this strategy, focusing on the present. In many ways, geography has collapsed through social media, making it possible for ideas, experiences and information to be shared in real time across the world.
But this has also made impressionable teenagers lonely. Unable to achieve all the excitement that people show on their digital feeds makes one feel incomplete and deficient. The mental toll that this takes on the young and impressionable needs no imagination.
Of course, it is not all doom and gloom. Perhaps because they are already equipped with so much information, those entering the marketplace today are actually looking for larger values to guide the world.
Equity, representation and transparency are not new terms, but the young are taking these values and asking for them to be internalised in society.
There is also a unique combination of optimism and pragmatism at work here. Knowing that there are challenges in the world, the solutions are innovative, creative and practical at the same time.
Young people are the major stakeholders of our world, as it is their future that is in jeopardy. They are also able to make decisions and changes faster than institutions, so their voice needs to be heard at every level. They can also notice when the world is looking back, instead of forward, and warn us of the consequences of such myopia.
While adults provide experience, memory and perhaps capital, it is to the young that we should be looking for inspiration to live in a world that is going to be theirs.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
