Episode 12: Ukraine, Twitch and Some People Are Missing Lockdown?

HOT TOPIC: The Russia Ukraine conflict

It would be remiss not to talk about what is currently going on in Ukraine and Russia and how this is affecting young people worldwide. What has felt different about this conflict compared to ones before, is the nature of how it is so visible through the now widespread availability of social media.

Information, news, and updates are being shared across different social media platforms daily, some of it true, some it misinformation. There are also young people either living in Ukraine or from Ukraine and living elsewhere, posting their experiences directly to the world through social media such as TikTok. The nature of how quickly we are getting updates and information directly from the conflict zones is something that feels quite new and unlike anything young people have experienced before.

We spoke to some of the young people from our mid-week youth group and there was a spectrum of how young people are feeling about seeing the situation unfold. Some young people said they’re ‘not concerned for us but for them (Ukrainian people)’, others had only just found out about what was going on through TikTok, and others said it was ‘devastating, they’ve not done anything to deserve it’.

It’s clear there is a level of fear amongst young people of this becoming a worldwide conflict and some of the social media narratives around this event is very heavy and could be stirring up fear amongst young people around the globe. With the pandemic and then this conflict, it’s clear young people have lived under uncertainty for quite some time.

DIGITAL WORLD: What is Twitch?

It’s a platform, it’s an app, you may have heard of Twitch before, or you may not have. It’s been around in its original form since 2011, but it was renamed Twitch in 2014, which is what we know it as now. Twitch is a platform often used for video streaming, particularly for streaming live gaming. It is often viewed as a split-screen video, where the person shows the game they are playing live, and then the viewers can also see the gamer’s face to see their reactions also. It is estimated there are around 2 million viewers per day using Twitch, you can also see, at any particular moment, live stats of how many people are watching at that time.

It’s used for entertainment and is also a way of keeping up with the most popular games, without the huge price tag attached to having the latest gaming console and games. You can also chat along with other viewers as you watch, so it’s not just video content to consume, but it has a community element as well.

ISSUES: University of Cambridge research

One in three young people says their mental health and wellbeing improved during COVID-19 lockdown measures.

This is from a piece of research conducted by the University of Cambridge and may come as a surprise to many people. Now we’ve moved out of lockdown and restrictions in the UK, we’re starting to look at how this time has affected young people. Lockdown was incredibly tough for so many people, but for some young people, the stability of spending more time at home and doing schoolwork online provided a safe space for mental health and wellbeing to improve.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220222135415.htm 

WORD OF THE MONTH

Basic = something or someone who is considered unoriginal, often used in relation to things or people who are mainstream and more commonly popular.

E.g. Someone who follows the crowd – ‘they’re so basic’.