the sea change in social innovation

The landscape of social change in Singapore has had a sea change compared with a decade ago. Today, opportunities abound for young people fiery with passion wanting to turn their ideas into reality.

The bulk of our youths may still be apathetic, but like Alexander Pope says, ‘Hope springs eternal from the human breast’. It is in the passion found in the hearts of our youth today that Singapore will rest her future hopes upon.

I was born just before the 1990’s. I no longer know exactly which letter of the alphabet denotes my generation. I only know that there were the baby-boomers after the war, then there were the yuppies in the 70-80’s, and then, generation Y, which could be me, but I sincerely don’t give a heck. Whatever my generation was, heck, I’m starting to feel old already. That’s what technology makes you feel. Can’t exactly grok FaceBook and all, but I guess its just me.

I’m not sure about my peers. They seem to be always many steps ahead of me when it comes to embracing technology. I guess I must have been one of the last dinosaurs walking around with a Sony Discman before I swapped it for an iPOD touch. Hang on, what? My friends are now grabbing for the iPOD classic? WTH! Meanwhile, all of them seem to be busy, occupied on their PSPs and Nintendo DS while talking about the specs for their games on their computers that I’ve barely heard before. And guess what? All of them have profiles on FaceBook and they all have more friends than me!

So the conclusion is, the generation that I belonged, I believe, is the most technologically integrated generation. And the second is that, I might just be the most backward among my generation here, but that’s something else.

Meanwhile, what we have today are I believe, the greatest tools for social innovation on the planet, the aforementioned, FaceBook, the Internet, the connectivity that we have today is simply astounding. And this is the hope that I have.

Yes, Singaporeans, young or old, might still be caught in the old materialistic rat race of many generations past. And it is still with us, no doubt about it. Yet at the same time, people today are more connected to each other than we’ve ever been. And that’s something to be excited about. That means that people with passion will find it easier to get connected, get together and think up some social innovation for the community.

I talk to my friends a bit, and in actual fact, many of them are really concerned about Singapore, about the communities they live in. Some of them live in Opposition wards, and this somehow becomes an identity to them that hey, they didn’t want to vote for PAP in the last General Election. Others seem to have gotten a little tired of living here and strongly desire to emigrate – yet they still want to live in safe, secure environment that Singapore has. A lot of my friends do have passion, it’s just that they haven’t found an avenue to express it, or just don’t feel that there are outlets. The thing that bugs them most is that, well, no one will listen to me, so, why should I care?

What we have here today is a tension among those born in this connected times. Maybe the grass does look greener, maybe it is greener, and maybe it really isn’t, on the other side. We live in Singapore, and just maybe, we may have taken its many wonderful aspects for granted. It’s such a shame, really, that it took an expatriate leaving in an HDB to tell us, Singaporeans about the wonderful aspects of living in Singapore. When Notes from a Small Island came out, my first impression was, how come a local wasn’t writing it?

I might not quite speak for my generation – they are an amazing bunch, and eventually, a few of them will become ministers some twenty years down the road, but we are one of the first few generations where so much has been shaken. We are no longer so much in sync with our parents but we are still connected to them. As there are bonds that tie us to our families, there are also forces there are making us more estranged from them. Not every baby-boomer from post-WW2 knows how to use the Internet. Not every parent understands the struggles that our generation will have to face, yet some of these parents ask their children not to be involved in the issues of our time. So that’s one thing that might still be holding back my peers from acting boldly.

Here’s how a conversation might go…

Mother : So, what’s your job about?

Child : Its about social change in Singapore, mum.

Mother : WHAT! Why aren’t you getting a proper job at the bank? 4 years accountancy for what?!

Child : Mum, I’m doing accounts for this social change organisation

Mother : And how much are you earning?

Child : Oh, two thousand per month

Mother : What! And all your friends are earning 5k a month!?!

…

And so it goes…

We are all familiar with the above, and I think that it has happened so many times that we know, in our own way, how the scene above would look like for ourselves. Despite all of these, hope remains. At no other time in Singapore’s history has there been so much opportunities, so much potential for all the young people slowly taking up the reins of leadership in society.

And what are we going to do with it?

The clarion call for my generation will not go unanswered. Bet on it.

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