In the age of social media, teenagers spend approximately seven and a half hours a day on social media platforms and 8-12-year-olds are not too far behind. The ever-evolving technology industry and accessibility to smartphones mean more young people than ever before are dependent on these devices and have easy and quick access to information. There are, however, both positive and negative consequences to social media, the most notable one being information overload which makes the spread of false information all too easy. Abdulshakur Abdilah (YES 2018-19, Tanzania, placed with AYA/AIFS in Scio, NY) recognizes that Zanzibari youths have not been immune to the effect of social media and decided to provide media literacy training for youth in Zanzibar.

The project was inspired by a training Abdulshakur received on media literacy during his YES program year. After learning about the adverse effects that social media can have on youths who aren’t yet mature enough to weed out false information or negative comments, he felt that it would be beneficial to do his part and educate youth in Zanzibar about media literacy.

Abdulshakur designed the courses to include raising awareness about the negative effects of social media and educating youth on how to avoid being affected by it. The courses took place over several days, with training conducted for secondary school students from various local schools. Through these activities, alumni had the chance to teach participants the basics of social media impacts and its consequences on consumers. They discussed how to fact-check and the Tanzanian laws that address and regulate social media.

While working on this project, Abdulshakur was able to increase his leadership skills while instilling valuable knowledge about the impacts of social media on the Zanzibari youth. Participants were able to learn ways to identify false or misleading information and think critically about what they read.  

Abdulshakur believes that this project was a success and plans to continue reaching out to other schools in the community to promote these teachings. “The activity is very impactful because teenagers nowadays are highly influenced by social media...and they are wandering through this imaginary world of social media which, if not well-controlled, may result in great loss. So, this activity has helped students in my school to be aware of social media and how to properly use it so that they can benefit from social media and not be negatively affected.”