THE YOUTH IS NOT IMPRESSED

The voice of the youth is lacking in big organisations, where the existence of the entity is fully dependent on its influence as well as its impact on the majority. For a country that attributes a chunk of its populace percentage to the youth, Eswatini sure does lack a youth perspective.

While on Twitter the other day, I came across a tweet on how the media, not only in Eswatini, seems to be out of touch with what can be considered appealing news to young people and mostly focuses on stories that appeal to a certain crowd. I would be forgiven for saying a much older crowd. What is evidently taking place is the unfortunate last kick of a dying horse. With social media taking precedence over what is appealing and relevant. 

Of course it can’t be all criticism and negativity which surrounds the media. However, in this particular Twitter post, the only significant thing that grabbed the attention of the social media critics was the chicken nuggets advert right below the story and it turned into a full on thread of admiration for the nuggets rather than the highlighted story; thus further emphasising the lack of relevance to that particular crowd. However, who says that is the majority’s point of view? 

Content

There, probably, is a section of the youth that relates to the content supplied by our media houses, nonetheless, most companies need to alter their vision statements and concepts solely, because the past statements lacked relevance to the predominant crowd and, therefore, this could almost lead to the downfall of these entities if nothing changes. Unfortunately, most positions are still hogged by people of a particular age, making it harder for the young crowd to bring in a fresh and appealing perspective. If that’s not the case, you find that ideas and opinions are shut down before they can make it to the final cut or your opinion is negatively received such that people take it mostly as bashing and demotivating, rather than purely constructive criticism. 

The reality is, companies need to appeal to the youth in order to effectively sustain themselves, but not only companies, but politics as well. We can’t be continuously speaking of people 20-year-olds have absolutely no recollection of or no relation to and in fact, we need to include a variety in our offering as companies in order to attract much younger crowds. By omitting this, we are sidelining the youth and pushing them further away from purchasing the products we sell and further from being our target market. We can’t allow chickens to be the only thing attractive to the customer, because that will unfortunately not be enough for them to support. 

Most, if not all, companies and organisations need a restructuring that will enable them to generate support from a much younger audience and appeal to a crowd that, in the next 10 years, will make up the majority of the population. Our mandate from now on needs to be roping in younger employees who will tap into uncharted territories and increase particularly participation in the digital space while conceptualising moves that will help propel companies into a sphere of influence that wasn’t previously attainable. The future is young, fresh and innovative and further, the future is digital and current. Companies are now venturing into using platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook because that is where the future lies. However, the sole purpose shouldn’t just be tapping into these social media platforms, but also using influencers to not only advertise the product, but also create content that would change the general approach to content produced in order to be more appealing, relevant and eliminate monotony.

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