Why they do not care? Exploring young Indonesians' low participation in proenvironmental activities

Abstract

PurposeYouths are known as a challenging group to be engaged in environmental programs due to their fickle characteristic. This study would like to offer Global South and developing countries' perspectives by using Indonesia as a case study. This study gives a lesson about the top-down approach in Indonesia's proenvironmental program and its trajectories toward youth participation.Design/methodology/approachUsing a case study approach, this article tries to deeply understand the issues happening in Indonesia, particularly among the young people living in several cities in Indonesia. The author was helped by the first participant, a student with experience with air pollution campaigns. Using snowball approach, the authors was helped by the first participant to contact with her friends from different cities to join as the participant in this research. To obtain their dynamic perspectives, the researcher conducted three focus group discussions via Zoom, each with a duration of 1.5–2 h. The researcher asked for their written permission to be participants through WhatsApp text and then verbally via Zoom video call. This research was done during the lockdown status of COVID-19 pandemic; thus, it was advised to do every research activity online. Based on their experience, the participants were divided into three groups: volunteers, influencers and university students aged 18–21. These Focus Group Discussion (FGD) results were transcribed and coded into behavior, peer support and knowledge by the author.FindingsThis study found that youths in Indonesia are concerned about the community's perspective on the environment; thus, their behavior will mirror others as part of a collectivist society. Parents, friends and the community are their role models when practicing proenvironmental behavior. Next, environmental education should be embedded in school curricula and religious centers. In addition, they should apply an open and democratic approach to reach youths' participation effectively. Programs and curricula with a top-down approach should be avoided to maintain sustainable actions. Last, there is an urgent need to develop citizens' literacy about environmental issues because it will highly influence young generations.Research limitations/implicationsThere should be more discussion on developing environmental knowledge for citizens at large. First, the next research should focus on the curricula development in formal and nonformal organisations, focusing on youths' voices during the process. In a proenvironmental program, honoring and prioritizing youth voices is central to youth work. Second, there should be further research on using a democratic approach for building conversation and discussion on environmental issues rather than a top-down approach. Further, researchers must focus on Indonesians' literacy in general, especially older and mature citizens, since their perspective will affect youths' behavior in the long term. These positive attitudes cannot be perceived and sustained if the community comments negatively toward proenvironmental behavior. Last, there is a lack of exploration to the influencers group to show their differences with other groups. Other researchers could further explore this in the future.Practical implicationsMultiple approaches must be used continuously to ask and seek youths' opinions, listen to what youths want and then prioritize them in the program. Rather than using programmatic design and delivery to shape social attitudes and behavior, campaigners should discuss with youths and influencers on creating their campaigns rather than maintain the program's sustainability. Environmental campaign messages should integrate with creative storytelling to build engagement with young people. By implementing this, youths could share their expressions using photography, narration, music, etc.Originality/valueIndonesia becomes a significant case study for this research due to its political and cultural system. Indonesia is known as a paternalistic and corporatist country where the practice of citizenship is challenged by the issue of power dynamics and imbalance. Therefore, a top-down communication is a common practice to create a quick-fix solution to foster productivity. Further, Indonesia has an environmental problem which made it vital for climate study. Globally, Indonesia ranks third in greenhouse gas emission after China and India. Recently, its capital city, Jakarta, is ranked as the worst-polluted city in the world.

Peran WhatsApp dalam Komunikasi Interpersonal Remaja Desa Soki

“…Kehadiran aplikasi whatsApp sebagai media komunikasi baru, sangat membantu siapapun penggunanya dengan mengalih fungsikan baik untuk kegiatan belajar mengajar, mengirim dan menerima pesan tanpa kantor pos, bertukar kabar tidak hanya mendengar suara tetapi whatsApp mampu memberikan fitur terbaik yakni dapat berbicara tatap muka yang dimana fitur tersebut dinamai dengan video call serta dapat terhubung antara 2 sampai 6 orang (Ayamga, 2023;Kosasih, 2024;Osei, 2023;Schwartz, 2024). Pada faktanya, aplikasi whatsApp bukanlah aplikasi pengeluaran pertama yang menyediakan fitur tersebut melainkan aplikasi BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) dan bukan juga satu-satunya yang populer dengan fitur tersebut karena pada tahun 2010 disusul oleh aplikasi imo yang mengeluarkan fitur persis dengan whatsApp sayangnya kedua aplikasi tersebut tidak mampu bertahan layaknya aplikasi whatsApp (Chen, 2023;Olaimat, 2023;Oslé, 2023;Ratriyana, 2023;Toure, 2023). Pada tahun 2016 aplikasi whatsApp mulai dikenal oleh masyarakat Desa Soki akan tetapi pada saat itu aplikasi imo lebih unggul dalam melakukan pertukaran kabar video call namun seiring berjalannya waktu pada tahun 2017 whatsApp sudah mulai banyak peminatnya sedangkan pada tahun 2018 sampai sekarang ini aplikasi whatsApp menjadi aplikasi terbanyak penggunanya dalam proses bertukar kabar maupun kegiatan lainnya secara online sementara dianggap praktis.…”