When an older person walks into a library and asks you how to use a computer having never touched one before, where do you start? When a young person walks into a church and asks you to explain God and faith having never heard of it before, where do you begin? How do you develop a sense of a belonging when the world tells them: “This just isn’t meant for me”?
I constantly have discouraged patrons come into my workplace, YMCA Educational Services in the library, who say something like: “I just didn’t grow up with computers like your generation. How will I ever find employment if everything is done online?” The digital literacy gap between my generation and those in my parents’ and grandparents’ is largely ex-communicating people from our society — from accessing employment, social services and general connectivity with others in a digital age. Not only is it a matter of being born too late, but also an economic issue that affects those who need the skills the most.
Growing up with first generation Mac books in the classroom, I was privileged to have access to a young adulthood shaped by social media, Sims games and typing essays instead of writing them by hand. As a millennial, it is so easy to be baffled that someone has never used a mouse until I imagine myself in his position.
After two years of Young Adult Volunteer service, the issue of digital illiteracy I’ve witnessed in New Orleans is more relevant than ever as I transition into a new role developing a youth program at a church in Scotland. Individuals face exclusion from a world where they want to belong, and should belong, but don’t have the understanding, means or capability to do so. It doesn’t feel relevant to them and maybe never will if there isn’t change.
The church is struggling to make connections. The older generations ask, “Where have all of the young people gone?” It can be easy for older generations to be baffled that a kid has never heard about God, but youth who may not have grown up in church like their parents need a way to understand God that goes beyond our sometimes fluffy and irrelevant Sunday school classes.
The questions I’m proposing are: How do we keep the core of our traditions, while also making church relevant and inclusive to today’s youth? How do we encourage, and create a space where youth feel welcome, important, and needed?
I don’t know the answers, but what I’ve learned this year is that it’s vital to meet an individual where she is and discover how to plant seeds of growth in her personal journey instead of pushing her onto a structured path of learning. I’m realizing that addressing personal, individual struggles is crucial to developing and encouraging a life of faith, just as it is to achieving digital literacy.
It’s time to start bridging gaps, and start welcoming people into a world of belonging. It’s always better when we grow together.
Hillary Leslie is a second year Young Adult Volunteer currently serving with YMCA Educational Services in New Orleans after a year of church and community volunteering in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
