So u thnk 2ds youth has gone too far? Or is it bcs u dont want to undrstd it? SWYP? OMG not anotr boomer whng about 2ds youth? Got news: AFAIK txt is new nrml. In 2ds fast wrld, KISS!OK, so we oldies have scratched our heads trying to decipher TXT abbreviations. (For those of you who are struggling with the above: IMHO = In My Humble Opinion, bcs = because, SWYP = So what’s your problem? OMG = Oh my god, AFAIK = As far as I know. KISS has been used for decades.
Of greater concern is the emerging bad habit of leaving out punctuation (and not just by young people!). The most popularly quoted case in point is ‘A woman without her man is nothing’. With punctuation: ‘A woman: without her, man is nothing.’ [Yes, Henrietta, you did tell me. Ad nauseam...] Or, as Shakespeare may have written:
‘Good Lementio, who calls at the gate?
‘My lord, a woman without; her man is nothing.
‘Bid her enter then, and show her man to the livery.
But I digress… May is Youth Service Month. Throughout the world, Rotary Clubs expend serious time, money and effort on Youth projects. Seeing that modern youth seems to mostly ignore convention on many fronts, are our hard raised funds really well spent?
OK, let me go back a little, say 20 years. Young people (and those young at heart) embraced email with gusto. But there were still an awful lot of people who refused to participate in this novel method of communication and continued… faxing. Yes, they did!
SWUP? Language and methods continually evolve, particularly as we move from the written to the spoken word - as in listening to podcasts or talking into our Smartphone “OK Google, what time is our Zoom meeting today?”.
But what has changed very little over the decades, indeed over centuries, millennia, is leadership. Leadership can be learned. Leadership can be coached. Rotary’s Youth programs are just as important today as they have always been. According to the ABS, our target demographic (aged 14 – 24), make up 14% of our population. That’s roughly 3 ½ Million people. Without resorting to platitudes, it is our responsibility to help the generations following us to maximize their leadership potential. Yeah – u rely dont get how awesome an opp u provide to young ppl and u shud all b very proud of ur work!
(Get full details of our District's Youth Programs from www.rotary9640.org - Top right side.)