by Rose Spotts

Created on: September 05, 2008

Life is a challenge. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way, but even when we're feeling challenged, there is a challenge going on, a decision to be made and a step to be taken. When we are young we face many challenges and also provide challenges to those around us. It is part of growing up and learning and finding our way in the world.

Three decades ago the world was different but it still existed all the same. Young people were faced with different political issues in the world yet oddly similar to the ones they see today. Issues of terrorism, the Middle East, and political leaders leading the way whether good or bad...it was all eerily similar. Unemployment was high, jobs were scarce and the crime rate was slowly creeping up. Doesn't seem much different from today, does it? Although the issues are similar, ways of coping and dealing with those issues have changed. This change has occurred either through the learning process of what works and what doesn't, or through new technology.

Three decades ago young people may have been more apt to take to the streets in order to get things done. Not to say that they don't still go that route, but today many young people use technology to fight their battles. Making a change or making a difference can now mean sending an email, setting up a website and spreading the word across the information superhighway. Same issues, different means. Putting yourself out there no longer means walking the streets and contacting people or places face to face. Whether it is finding a job, meeting new people or speaking out against an issue, young people today are just as courageous if not even more so through using new technologies to make a difference. Technology has given young people the ability to do many things they couldn't do before. Its possible now to meet people all over the world of the same mindset and band together on an issue, start a business or even just exchange ideas simply by sending an email.

Technology has made all of the difference in how young people today use their courage. It might seem to some that young people don't have as much courage but if they paid attention to all of the things young people are doing, they'd see they have plenty of it. It takes courage to speak out on an issue, to go up against someone else's beliefs, make a statement, go to school, find a job, and just plain get a life. At this point in history, young people have more tools with which to do all of these things and they use them. Same battles, same courage, different weapons.

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