The COVID-19 Teen-Speak from Nextgen
Covid-19, Corona Virus, Pandemic, Infodemic, Lockdown……whoa..! Haven’t we enriched our vocabulary so much in the last three months? Credit goes to the newest threat to the humankind – The Corona Virus, scary virus with a crown that is! This would probably remain etched in our minds until we meet our maker.
Across all this chaos, my mind kept constantly wondering about how children were perceiving the situation. What were their fears, insecurities, worries and botheration? Were they secretly ecstatic about it? How were they faring being on house arrest?
I have been observing my children. My 14 year old daughter had so much to express about all that she was hearing from us and reading in the newspaper. On the contrary, my 10 year old son was oblivious to the scare. Blissfully ignorant each day for him was full of excitement and playtime. I thank God for little mercies, that we left the independent house we lived in, and moved to a gated community on the 2nd of March 2020. We closely escaped lockdown between leaving the old house and moving to the new one.
‘Human beings are the only living beings that need to earn money to feed themselves’. Ah… my daughter surprised me while having breakfast, a few days ago. It set me thinking of what the interpretations, opinions and conclusions are, of her age group about this unexpected situation. After all, we would be gone leaving this world to them, to deal with.
We reached out to a few select teenagers who demonstrated a great deal of emotional intelligence to discuss this. Most of them were quite vocal about their thoughts and eager to share. Some of them shied away and hesitated. Nevertheless, we requested the parents to encourage and allow them to record their messages. The findings were quite interesting and of a varied mix. We were intrigued no end, and ended up creating a series of videos to share with the world.
- What were your initial thoughts when you first heard about the pandemic?
- What impact did the news of lockdown have on you?
- In what ways has the lockdown affected you and what is your take on the effect? (School, socialising, recreation, extracurricular activities, hobbies, outings etc.)
- What do you visualize as far as the long term impact of such a situation on mankind is concerned?
- Has the situation transformed anything within you? If yes, what and in which ways?
- Tell us what are your learnings, insecurities, concerns about your future and that of the whole world?
- What are your thoughts about the way we are dealing with the whole situation as a country?
- What feelings occupy your mind when you think about the less privileged or the unfortunate ones coping up to survive?
- Have you done anything special for any one of them, even if it’s minuscule or for one person, during this period to ease it out for them?
- Any message or thoughts you would like to share with others?
The six videos in the series Covid-19 Teen-Speak gives you a sneak-peak into their intelligent, compassionate, creative and adaptive minds. We should nurture these traits and allow them to blossom on their own, beautifully and ensure that they are future ready!