Montreal Matters: Youth
CITIZENShift’s ‘youth’ bloggers are scouting the town during Montreal Matters to let you know all about the great events going on. Come back often to read what they have discovered throughout the month of October!
Today, there is a proliferation of media that targets the youth- whether it be in advertising, commercialism, music, television and film; or computer and internet programming, such as video games and computer sites; or cellphone and ipod use- so much media targets the youth. [Apparently even the Pope has been tapping into new media- during Youth Day this year in Australia, he used wireless text messaging to network with more than 250,000 pilgrims!] Yet how much media is actually made by youth, and accurately represents them? In search to answers to such questions, last night I attended the Shoot First, Ask Questions Later: Youth as Media Producers workshop, as part of the Montreal Matters series at McGill.
The evening was led by McGill Education Professors Michael Hoechsmann and Bronwen Low (authors of Reading Youth Writing: “New” Literacies, Cultural Studies and Education), who spoke about how so much of today’s media is directed toward youth- often through the aggressive, ubiquitous marketing and advertising cultures of the 21st Century. Yet this very media often ignores the opinions of youth, and is dismissive of their ideas. Read the rest of this entry »
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Last Friday I attended a lecture at Vanier College as part of a Montreal Matters series, Social Science ‘08. The lecture was delivered by the London-born playwright and film director, Michael McKenzie, who presented his most recent work, Adam’s Wall (2008). The film follows a classic theme- the force of natural determination versus human will-, focusing on the relationships of different ethnic communities in Montreal and showing the willingness of some youth today to do away with previous, imposed cultural barriers. The story goes as follows: in the midst of a budding, unexpected romance between a young Jew named Adam and a Lebanese girl named Yasmine, the couple finds themselves confronted by the intolerance of their communities, and implicated in larger world events. Indeed, their respective backgrounds seem hard to avoid: the tragic loss of Adam’s parents while he was a child living in Israel still bears him psychological pain, and his domineering orthodox grandfather/ guardian keeps him under close surveillance; in the wake of the Lebanese-Israeli war of 2006, Yasmine’s Montreal community is in a panic, and she finds that her mother is missing in Beirut. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: adam, adam's, cultural, diversity, documentary, film, montreal, wall
Written by
colleen
October 23, 2008
No lack of studies out there on youth behaviour! I attended a multi-disciplinary lecture about ‘issues’ affecting youth the other day at McGill University and if I were to sum up an overarching theme that united the four presentations it would be: ‘don’t be so hard on youth, learn from them!’
One of the lectures covered youth & physical activity with a strong emphasis on youth with ADHD. In ADHD we know that ‘activity’ is the major issue in question, fundamentally behaviour associated with movement skills, but it is not well understood. A study that examined the usefulness of drugs for youth with ADHD versus those who are not taking them determined that very little difference in movement skills was detected. Perhaps we need to consider how our interaction with youth with ADHD needs to alter. Read Dr.William Harvey’s study here.
Do children lie? Of course they do! Don’t you?! Hence, lecture #2. A review of Dr. Victoria Talwar’s research on children’s truth and lie-telling behaviour. How was this done? Through a study on ‘peeking’! Lying is a natural behaviour that evolves and becomes more elaborate by the time a child reaches eight years of age; very little of it is seen under the age of three.
It has been observed that if you simply ask a child to promise to tell the truth in a situation (i.e. in court) there is a higher probability that they will stick to their promise.
Remember: “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything” (Mark Twain)
In a study that examined children that live with corporal punishment versus those that do not, the abused children seem to have more strategic lying behaviours and at a younger age.
What struck me about Dr. Andrew Large’s research on youth and the web is his Bonded Design, a user-centered method of involving youth in the design of websites for their peers. He emphasised how much youth prefer to browse rather than do research online. The History Trek site, that youth helped design, makes browsing a reality when research is needed.
Lastly, Dr Shaheen Shariff shared her work on Cyber-bullying, a topic we will be featuring on CITIZENShift soon.
Have you ever noticed how the media often portrays youth as ‘out of control’ when they use technology and the internet? Are they really the ones to blame for the tragic stories we hear about internet bullying? Why aren’t certain corporations held accountable for turning a blind eye to the ‘bully’ marketing methods that they impose on this young generation? The problem is that there are no concrete policies in place to deal with issues such as these in the cyber world.
Dr. Shaheen’s new book shed’s a wealth of light on the old issue of bullying within the new media landscape. A must read for educators, parents and concerned media professionals.
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Tags: ADHD, cyberbullying, honesty, lying, media, physical activity, punishment, websites for youth
Going back to CEGEP was a fun assignment for this CitizenShifter. Yesterday, I attended the first day of the Social Science Festival at Vanier College. The week long festival is one of the events featured for Montreal Matters.
Not to say that I am old by any means but I did graduate from CEGEP a few years ago. As I slipped into the auditorium for the presentation on stress, I could not help but wonder whether CEGEP was as informative in “my day”. Psychology professor Dr. Karen White gave an insightful presentation on the multiple factors of stress. As a student this information was quite valuable to me. After the presentation, I instantly felt bad for having stayed up the night before to complete my homework. I learned that the continuous lack of sleep could have serious repercussions in the long run. Furthermore, Dr. White informed that it is much better to have a few highly stressful periods in life than to continuously live through medium levels of stress. Continuously stressful lifestyle eventually leads to burnout and as Dr. White put it most don’t see it coming. So I promised myself that I will allow time for 8-10 hours of sleep as much as possible. Despite my very hectic lifestyle being out of commission for 6 months with a burn out is not an option I am willing to consider.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Montreal Matters: Youth, social science, stress, Water, Youth
Written by
tim
October 17, 2008
“Youth are very upset with the situation facing our community and also indigenous people across Turtle Island [North America]. [We] are feeling that many community leaders, specifically the government-backed band councils, never take any real action to improve our conditions, despite the often dire circumstances, from suicides to extreme malnutrition.”
Those are the words of Merrick Kahroniakete Diabo, a Mohawk youth activist and member of youth empowerment group Making Adult Decisions (MAD) in Kahnawake. Diabo was interviewed by Stefan Christoff this week for Montreal alt weekly The Hour in the second part of a series on youth issues in Montreal during Montreal Matters.
Youth in general often find it difficult to have their voices heard. Seeing your land and culture disappearing around you a bit at a time makes the need to speak out all the more necessary - but all the more difficult at the same time. Read the full article about First Nations youth in the Montreal area taking hold of their future here.
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Tags: First Nations, Mohawk, Montreal Matters: Youth, Youth
Written by
andy
October 8, 2008
Hello, theater-lovers!
Last night(Tuesday October 7th) Dawson College hosted a re-run of “uphill both ways”, a play by Professional Theatre students, for other students. Of course I, being a proud Dawson guy myself, made it a point to show up and report back to you!
It was great!
I felt like the play really captured the lives of the average person in my age group. They covered everything from Self-esteem to the importance of student-based activism, and they did it wonderfully!
I particularly liked the segment that showed the effects of technology on our generation; Great message. All in all I gotta’ say is I’m proud of the students and the people who turned out for being a great audience.
Gotta’ love that youthful creativity! Haha!
If you would like to know more about Dawson College, click here!
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Written by
andy
October 6, 2008
What a show!
Last Thursday I checked out It’s our world, an exhibit by a great photographer by the name of Mitja Rietbrock. I was there with Leave Out Violence, one of the beneficiaries of the event, and believe it or not I was one of the live musicians!
The show was great! Good food, good turn out and an unbelievable collection of art and stories.
Check out more photos from the event HERE!
You can see more content from LOVE right here, in CITIZENShift’s dossier: Youth For Peace and Conflict Resolution.
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