"What am I supposed to do about it?"

Adolescents, digital media and climate change

Abstract

It has long been assumed that digitalisation would lead to more sustainability. Examples are the reduction of road traffic through teleworking, extending the reach of health care through telemedicine applications and increased democratisation due to the free and open access to information online, as well as much broader possibilities for digital participation. In retrospect however it becomes clear that not all of these expectations could be met. While many areas of life have enjoyed significant improvement it is now apparent that in other fields digitalisation can only hope to supplement, but not supplant existing workflows and technologies.

At the same time there is increased awareness that the use of internet applications such as cloud services, apps and wireless connectivity consumes unprecedented amounts of energy. This means that new approaches and strategies for achieving sustainability are required.

Especially among young people there is a growing realisation of these issues and the broader topic of digitalisation and runaway global warming. They reflect and evaluate their contribution and role in a path to a more sustainable way of life, and continually look for new and ethically justifiable ways to take action. The EU-initiative Saferinternet.at has developed new educational material exactly for this endeavour.