{"id":2013,"date":"2022-12-08T05:11:43","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T05:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/237check.org\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2022-12-08T05:11:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T05:11:45","slug":"the-role-of-social-media-in-fostering-opportunities-for-youth-during-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/237check.org\/2022\/12\/08\/the-role-of-social-media-in-fostering-opportunities-for-youth-during-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Role of Social Media in Fostering Opportunities for Youth during Crisis<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Amboh <\/strong><\/strong>Vennessa Nche<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cohort 7#AFFCameroon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The English speaking regions of Cameroon have experienced various ordeals since October 2016, when protests and strikes related to sectorial demands escalated into a crisis over the economic and political marginalization of the Cameroon Anglophone minority who mostly reside in the North West and South West Regions.  Since the start of the crisis, a lot of young people from the crisis hit regions have used the media, both positively and negatively. While others immediately took to their social media platforms to spread fake news, others started building up professional careers which has made them successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of young people from the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon took it upon themselves to rise from grass to grace via the use of the social media, especially during this crisis period. While others took it upon themselves to rise through positive means, it is worth noting that other youth from these crises hit regions used social media to propagate hate speech, misinformation and disinformation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By using their handles properly, these youth have preached peace, shunned hate speech and impacted their community positively in one way or the other.  This report seeks to explain how social media use has fostered opportunities for some of these young people during this crisis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the introduction of the internet and subsequent use of social media in Cameroon in early 2000, there has been a steady increase in the number of users per year. By December 2000, Cameroon had 20,000 internet users and by June 2019, internet users in Cameroon had drastically increased to 6,128,422 users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to statistics obtained from Digital 2022: Cameroon, there were 10.05 million internet users in Cameroon as at January 2022 and the internet penetration rate stood at 36.5% of the total population. Zooming into the various Social Media platforms statistics;<\/p>\n\n\n\n