Words by Smiley Team
Gen-Z is the first generation to grow up fully immersed in the digital age, but often find that they're on the outside looking in regarding the legislative process – particularly around tech. One organization is looking to change that.
Tech(nically Politics) was founded by two college freshmen, Aliza Kopans and Emma Lembke, with the intent of magnifying youth’s voices in legislation and informing young people about the pros and cons of technology.
“We felt that there’s a deficit of youth voices in the technology legislative space and we want to change that,” Aliza told Smiley News.
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The organization was founded with three central ideas: empowerment, awareness, and enacting change. The goal is to take each of these ideas to the youth and provide them the recourses to express their voices.
“We want to empower young people and their voices,” says Aliza. “That initial conversation is about their relationship to technology… It hasn’t been a linear process, it’s hard work but really good work.”
Beyond the legislative process, Tech(nically Politics) wants to bring awareness to some of the pitfalls of technology and the place it has in our society.
“Technology can be a supporter of scientific misinformation, with things like vaccines and social media can perpetuate that,” adds Aliza.
She also spoke on the growing concern about the mental health of the youth in America. The Centers for Disease Control released data that shows that the mental health crisis in the US is growing.
“My focus is the human aspect of it,” she says. “I want to humanize the data.”
Currently, Tech(nically Politics) is drumming up support for the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, an initiative to push companies that provide goods or services likely to be used by children to be required to have certain limits in place like privacy data access, and language suited to children.
SIGN THE PETITION: Support the nonprofit's work with their push to have privacy and suitable language for children. Sign here.
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