Save the World with Clicks – How Can Youth use VR Technology to Envision Better Worlds? (Special opportunity to meet activist)

5th July 2024

By Nour Jamal

Credit: hakule/ iStock Photo

This year the United Nations will celebrate International Youth Day on 12^th August 2024. Their theme is titled: From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development. The theme relates to how youth can use various technologies to create pathways for global sustainability. Youth are encouraged to input their own ideas on what a “sustainable” world looks like.

Azure Beach Library has a responsibility in the global sustainability goals. This year 12^th August 2024 Azure Beach Library will host an event for youth aged 12-18 years old. It will be at 5 pm at the Azure Room.

 

What’s at stake? Understanding sustainable development

The United Nations has outlined 17 sustainable development goals

1. Poverty

2. Zero Hunger

3. Good health and Well-being

4. Quality education

5. Gender Equality

 And many more goals that the UN is working towards improving.

 

Azure Beach youths are encouraged to be critical of how they could provide realistic and lasting change on the local and global fields, using the beneficial features of technology.

 

The UN’s call to action invites you to answer two specific questions: what needs to change in the world? And how and which technologies can assist you as a youth to make that change?

 

So, how can a headset and virtual world possibly help solve real-world problems? Let’s break it down:

Imagine being able to witness life in a refugee camp, tonnes of plastic polluting islands, or the destruction after a natural disaster? Seeing leads to emphasising as youth are more clearly able to recognise what is wrong around the globe.

Credit: Paulo Oliveira/Alamy Stock Photo

In turn, the use of Virtual Reality is not only to be an onlooker, but also to design solutions that can result in solutions and improvements in local and global sustainability. This can be in the form of making Virtual models such as experimenting with everything from sustainable farming practices to sustainable building infrastructures to benefit natural disaster prone countries.

There will also be an opportunity for a meet and greet to meet with innovative thinker Ruha Benjamin. Benjamin is an American sociologist whose work addresses the intersection of race, technology, and social justice. She focuses on how algorithms, AI, and other technologies can perpetuate racial inequalities and proposes ways to design more inclusive and equitable systems. She is an advocate for design justice, which means creating technologies that are developed and implemented with consideration for equity, fairness, and inclusion.

Benjamin's work is focused on ensuring that technology works in ways that promote justice and reduce bias, particularly in areas like policing, education, and employment. She advocates for community-driven tech design, ensuring that marginalized voices are involved in shaping the tech that impacts their lives. Her goal is to help create a world where technology can be a tool for justice and equality, not oppression. To join the opportunity of meeting Ruha Benjamin, follow Azure Beach on Azure Beach social media where updates on this event will be posted.

Applications to register for the event open 10^th July 2024, through the Eventbrite link.