Teens and Technology

Speaking at Elim Church in Kongowea

Technology as a tool: Promoting teens' talents and ideas into full entrepreneurship.

In this day and time, how can we, in Kenya, tap into the more-than-readily available technology to uplift the lives of teens in our community?

That has been the question in most of the guardians’ mind, especially those who have had the privilege of installing "Zuku's" affordable high speed Internet connection  in their homes for their families to enjoy.

It is meant for more than just watching the latest episode of “The Flash” before every one of the friends on Facebook watches and comments about it, there is more to the presence of high speed Internet connection at home than watching movies online. The question is, “What is in this availability of affordable technology to the teens?”

As I spoke to the teens at a camp hosted by Elim Church in Kongowea, Mombasa County,  we had a wonderful session looking at Technology as a tool to promote the entrepreneurship ideas of the teens before they exit this extra-creative season of their lives.

It is vital to acknowledge that “the best time for anyone to develop a product is when more than 50% of the resources required are availed for free.” What has this got to do with the teens and technology, you ask? As and when the young minds are still under the parents’ supervision, they should consider this state as a gift from God. Most of the teens I met at the camp admitted to owning a mobile phone that can access the Internet; a whole package if you ask me especially when you consider that their guardians are kind enough to also buy them Internet bundles regularly.

Why do I consider this as a good time to develop a product? Because the teens have over 50% of their needs taken care of by the parents at no charge.

This means that such a teen can comfortably shoot a short video of themselves talking of their talents or even demonstrating their talents and share the same on Facebook, twitter, Youtube among other social networks that they consider as their regular nests, for their friends and friends of friends to see. This means that they have free marketing of their products availed to them.

A few of the talents and products I have seen so far in the last 3 months of interacting with the youth in Mombasa County in Kenya are:

1. Crochet work – a good piece had been done by a Form 3 student from Aga Khan High School
2. Dance crew – A group of boys aged between 13 -19 years that I met at the Elim Camp
3. A voice that could fit the angels - I met this beautiful girl at the camp, she had composed her  own song and sang it during my speech!
4. Would be journalists – At least 4 teens at the camp admitted that they wanted to be journalists. Of course the way forward would be to start blogging right away.
5. Fashonista at heart – While assisting in the Intel she will connect digital literacy training at Aga Khan high school before the term ended, more than 4 girls I interacted with spoke and wrote their projects on running boutiques.  

Now imagine what these teens would do if only they were guided by a willing soul on tapping into the benefits of technology? By the time most of them turned 19 they would have a successful product ready in the market and making a good profit from it.

I say this in the light of the view that Kenyan education system seems to give to the teens. The 8-4-4 system indicates that a child has to spend at least 16 years in training before they can earn a living bearing in mind that most of them only begin the system upon turning 6 years. That translates to 22 – 23 years of age for the person to begin earning. Surely, at this rate of looming poverty in this country, do we have to hold down ripe talent and ideas in wait for the individual’s 23^rd birthday? It is obvious by then most of the freely availed resources will already be exhausted and unavailable.

Mentors, guardians and everyone who has a heart for the teens, let us help them develop their talents and ideas into something they can use in their daily lives. After all, isn’t all this education about giving them a meaningful life?

Why waste the time waiting for a system while we can tap into the ripe mind and available resources and help our teens to build a bright life for themselves?

#magwealth