REMARKS
Critique of overemphasis on social media as cause of subway surfing
1:47:13
·
99 sec
Council Member Althea Stevens expresses concern about the overemphasis on social media as the cause of subway surfing. She argues that this focus is too narrow and potentially lazy, as subway surfing existed before social media. Stevens highlights:
- The need to explore all spaces and factors contributing to subway surfing
- The importance of reaching young people who may not be on social media
- The value of involving young people in developing solutions
- Stevens suggests that the current approach may be missing important aspects of the subway surfing subculture.
- She emphasizes the importance of diversifying outreach methods beyond social media campaigns.
- The council member advocates for including young people's perspectives in finding solutions to the problem.
Althea Stevens
1:47:13
Hello.
1:47:14
Good afternoon, everyone.
1:47:16
I will try to keep it as brief as possible because I know I have some colleagues who wanna ask questions, and I'm last on the list.
1:47:22
But, nevertheless, one of the things, and I think I said this in my open statement and even from listening, and it's nice to be able to be able to listen to everyone's testimony, but the running thing I'm saying, like, is social media.
1:47:34
I find that to be a little lazy on our part because we all know it's not just social media, because again, I remember growing up, I know kids who Subway served, and this was something that was being done then, and I think that there's other things, especially thinking about how this, and it was even said that it's a subculture.
1:47:50
A lot of those folks who are in that subculture actually are not online, are people who wanna be off the grid, and so I think that we have to make sure that when we're even thinking about this and talking about it and framing it, to thinking about how we're exploring all spaces because, yeah, social media can be one of the driving factors, but it's not the only one.
1:48:08
And so I'm a little disheartened that has been so much focused on that, and even the only real campaign that's being done being done on social media because thinking about, especially young people, and it's hard, and I'm not saying we don't have answers, but I think that we also have to think about what are other ways that we reach those young people who aren't necessarily on social media, and who you don't know because they're not on there.
1:48:28
Right?
1:48:28
And so we have to, for me, always think about, well, what is the other side, especially when it comes to young people.
1:48:33
I do like that I'm hearing a lot of, like, trying to get young people to be a part of these conversations, and that's the route that we should be going because they're the one with the answers.
1:48:42
Clearly, it's none of any of us.
1:48:43
Right?
1:48:44
We are not young people.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
1:48:45
I say
Althea Stevens
1:48:46
it all the time, and so I'm a big proponent of making sure that young people are in the room and actually giving the solutions to the answer.
