Youth Empowerment: Understanding Aspirations of Young People with AI

Background

In collaboration with Fondation Botnar, a global team of 50 changemakers set out to understand the aspirations, concerns, and challenges faced by young people aged 10-24. This Swiss-based foundation, committed to leveraging digital and AI tools, aims to improve the health and well-being of children and youth worldwide. The challenge was to capture insights from the digital ecosystem where millions of young people express their thoughts daily.

Objective

The project sought to empower youth by identifying their aspirations, challenges, and needs through the analysis of online conversations. By using AI-driven tools, the aim was to provide Fondation Botnar with actionable insights to inform initiatives that better support young people globally.

Approach

The team used advanced AI methodologies to analyze vast amounts of data from social media and other digital platforms. This included:

• Sentiment Analysis: Applying natural language processing to detect emotions and sentiments in text data.
• Empath Analysis: Going beyond basic polarity to assess a wide spectrum of emotions and themes.
• Topic Modeling: Scraping and processing news articles to identify frequently discussed topics.
• Data Collection and Processing: Gathering anonymized data from social media to understand patterns and trends.

These techniques allowed the team to extract meaningful insights about youth concerns and aspirations.

Results and Impact

The project revealed significant trends in youth conversations:

• In 2019, mental health topics, particularly self-harm and social acceptance, dominated discussions.
• In 2020, the focus shifted to loneliness and the impact of COVID-19.
• Education emerged as a universal concern, while young people in Africa also highlighted challenges related to HIV.

By analyzing online conversations, the team provided Fondation Botnar with a comprehensive understanding of youth issues. These insights are set to inform initiatives aimed at addressing the unique needs of young people and promoting youth empowerment worldwide.

Future Implications

The findings demonstrate the potential of leveraging AI to analyze social media data for youth insights. Fondation Botnar can use these insights to shape programs and policies that support young people more effectively. Future research could expand into additional topics, enabling deeper understanding and targeted interventions in diverse contexts.