Social Change Not Social Media
They want to help the world, not just provide it with the next platform to post our selfies. Remi, 20, New Jersey.
Technology, along with its STEM sisters (science, engineering, math), is a major catalyst for fluidity, without which, much of Gen Z’s flow would freeze. It facilitates the disintegration of borders and grants access to professional and personal opportunities. It also provides tools for self-expression, self-discovery, and self-creation. Here, one of our Irregular Report Editors Remi Riordan looks at the symbiotic relationship between STEM and Gen Z’s fluidity.
I use technology everyday, yet in many ways I have an aversion to it. I run an online and print magazine, yet I prefer print to digital websites because I love the feel and weight of paper in my hand. I love the tangibility of print. Still, I use my iPhone for hours on end and could not imagine my life without the internet. But my understanding of technology is limited. I know how to use technology, but I don’t have a greater understanding of how it is made or the larger concepts that go into creating the devices we use every day. So when I was asked to write about STEM, I was both nervous and excited. What did I know about STEM? When I think of technology, I immediately think of what I use every day: my laptop and iPhone. I think of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and the other social media networks my generation use constantly.
But the day before writing this, I saw a headline in The New York Times that mirrored a conclusion I reached while working on this piece: young people in STEM, more and more, are veering away from social media jobs. With Facebook, the election, and the growing knowledge of social media’s effects on us, people are increasingly viewing the communication medium as toxic. Gen Z want to make social change, not social media; they want to help the world, not just provide it with the next platform to post our selfies.
I am not an expert on STEM. I stop talking to boys who ask for my Snapchat because I think it’s lame,and I get confused every time my professors bring up AI or AR or VR or any other tech acronym. Still, I am a part of Gen Z, and I have never been more hopeful for STEM now that my peers are creating what they want to see in the world.The documentary Science Fair really shows the direction STEM is headed, following high school students competing to win the top prize for STEM students in the world. What makes it so exciting, at least for me, is the diversity of the students competing.
“Technology is very important to me. Top three reasons: Mobile phones (keeping in touch with friends/family) internet (work) and washing machines lol.” — PHIDELIA, 20, LAGOS
Sure, STEM students will always build amazing products — but with a more diverse group of students creating, more resources will be available for the people who have historically been underserved. Not only does Science Fair uproot societal stereotypes by showing a young hijabi woman and a Brazilian girl from a poor town, it makes the STEM fields’ ideas and understanding of the world more complex and vast.
Because more marginalized people are being given a seat at the table, or just creating their own table altogether, STEM will continue to improve society. One of the Gen Zs in Irregular Labs’ community, when speaking about why she wants to work in AI, said she “wants to make humans more human.” She and my other peers desperately want to effect positive change through healthcare, communication, and every other area that STEM influences.
“My perfect platform would be something social activism based. Creative videos, pictures, and other art forms but all with underlying meaning about activism, education, and more. I would want it to be regulated to educate rather than just simple selfies” — PHILO, 19, PARIS
I may not be an expert on STEM, but I couldn’t have this job without it. I wouldn’t be able to do half the things I do without my iPhone or laptop. Technology gives me the ability to work fluidly, to communicate with friends and coworkers whether they are sitting next to me or across the country. And if I learned anything from working on this report, it’s that STEM, more and more, is giving young people the opportunity to be, work, and think as fluidly as they can possibly imagine.
