YouthNet blog
An insight into youth issues, volunteering trends, charity life and more from the UK charity YouthNet
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Wednesday Oct 14, 2009
Partnerships Team Volunteering
Culpeper farm – I thought we'd be feeding some pigs or goats or petting a nice donkey, but there was no way Dave, our chief organiser, was going to let us off that easily. We were in for a bit of a work out!
Just behind the massive Sainsbury's in Islington is a lovely little haven, away from the busy roads of London. Stuffed to the brim with rows of allotments, archways covered in greenery and even a little pond, Culpeper farm is a thriving community garden.
As Culpeper Farm is completely run by volunteers, it was the perfect place for the Partnerships Team to volunteer and do some team building too! We had no idea what to expect. Kate, the Volunteer Coordinator at the gardens instructed us to 'wear something that you wouldn't mind getting dirty' and for some reason I had images of us knee deep in mud! We were given the task of tidying the entrance to the garden which had been neglected for some time. Brambles and ivy had over taken the area, but fear not, we were here to help (after being given various sharp tool and saws!).
Under the guidance of our resident gardening expert Fiona, we filled about 6 bags of dead and over grown bushes - all sent to be recycled of course. Dave even got to show off his strength by ripping out a whole bush and re-locating it. Working as a team we managed to transform the whole front entrance. But the best bit was planting the bulbs in the freshly cleared ground. Hopefully by next spring when the flowers blossom we'll be able to see the results of what we did in just one afternoon.
Everyone loved the chance to be out of doors and it was great to feel like you had accomplished something together in just one afternoon. We want to say a huge thank you to Kate and Culpeper farm for a wonderful afternoon, and the much needed tea and cakes when we finished! If you don't do team volunteering at your work already – you're missing out! Click here to find out more about employee volunteering. Check out the amazing pictures on Flickr.
What's wrong with face-to-face?
So, YouthNet's launched a new report today: a study by Professor Michael Hulme into how young people communicate, interact and seek information online. It's a really interesting read, encompassing the results of quantitative online research undertaken with 994 young people by The Futures Company, quotes from young people, and comments on the implications for website design and development. It's also too much to cover in one blog entry. So I can only encourage you to go and read it yourself, blog about yourself, discuss the findings and debate the conclusions.
75% of the young people surveyed said that 'they couldn't live without the internet'. That's probabaly an exaggeration, but I don't find it surprising. I'd say the same thing. Then again, I spend at least eight hours a week-day in front of a computer, I studied multimedia, and I work for an online charity. I'm going away for a week in the country at the end of the month, and the fact that I've been told that there's no internet or mobile access is already weighing heavily on my mind. Being such an online advocate, I'm often asked 'what's wrong with face-to-face?'
After all, the very nature of online communication is that it's mediated by a machine such as a computer or hand-held device. With the lack of body-language and eye contact, and the possibilities for deception, it's possible to see the internet as cold, impersonal and isolating. However, what that assumption ignores is the way young people live what Professor Hulme calls 'hybrid lives' – their onlines and their offlines are blurred. Their friends on Facebook may or may not be friends from school or work; status updates on Twitter may become conversation starters in the classroom. 80% of young people surveyed said they use social networking sites to talk to friends or family they see a lot; 22% said that they use them to communicate with someone they don't know.
So, while it's impossible to generalise the experience of every young person, it seems that for many these online tools aren't replacing face-to-face communication methods – they're complimenting them. As Professor Hulme says, "The more we can communicate, the more we will, and do, communicate." What's changing is the amount of communication tools available, and people's ability to choose a communication tool which is appropriate for a particular situation: broadcasting their thoughts in blogs or vlogs, updating a selected group of friends on Facebook, texting or calling an individual, or having a face-to-face conversation.
I don't have a problem with face-to-face conversation. In fact, it's often quite useful. I do have more of a problem with the assumption that it's absolutely-always-without-a-doubt the best form of communication. The internet can be a great way to make first contact with communities of interest, for example. After all, it's easy to search online for groups of fellow social media geeks – in my case – than try and spot them during my morning commute. Once contact is made, a mix of face-to-face and online interactions often result. The internet also allows us to reach out beyond the restrictions of geographic proximity. And, as the report goes on to say, the internet can also be a great way to source information about issues young people may feel less comfortable talking about face-to-face, with websites like TheSite.org allowing young people to access trustworthy advice on a range of topics.
While it's important to realise that there are issues or dangers around communicating on the internet – the possibilities of online bullying, the possibilities of abuse and so on – it's also important to realise that, in many cases, these are either reflected or replaced by alternative issues or dangers when communication occurs offline. Moreover, just as I was taught not to give out my name on the phone by my cautious parents, today young people have learned similar lessons about the internet. 77% of the young people surveyed agreed that: 'On the internet you can never know if someone is who they say they are.'
The past century has seen huge developments in the way we communicate: from telephone calls, through radio and television broadcasts, to the development of mobile phones, faxes and the internet. While it's not my place to predict what will come next, it seems obvious that there's a lot more communication to do, and for each new generation, there'll be more and more new communication tools as the years progress.
Today, 86% of the young people surveyed loved how new technology helps them communicate with people. Let's keep creating technology, creating websites and online services, that will help us communicate with people. Face-to-face, hands-to-keyboard, in the twittersphere and in the blog comments below, let's ensure this conversation continues.
Posted by Natasha Judd ( 10:41 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
