Hunting for hope
Hunting for hope
E33: How BTS used the UN Sustainability Goals and a message of hope to get stickier on my algorithm
Please join me in welcoming some new members to our Tilt community: Dan, Sandra (Sunday Candy), and Mike, Alyson, Anita and Candy (school counsellors and university admissions).
As our community grows in diversity and size, I look forward to what we can do together as a group to increase conversations around hope and possibility.
Last week we talked about understanding how the algorithms drive our content. This week our focus is on HOPE.
We need to nurture a culture of possibility and hope
This is to counter an increasing mental health crisis in adolescents
Using a Venn diagram to understand how BTS intersects with the Future of Work and where they bring a message of hope
Before you leave today, I ask you to consider where you can bring a much-needed positive and hopeful message to the adolescents in your orbit over the coming week.
Karena
Hunting for Hope
I firmly believe in serendipity - that the best idea can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. For that to occur, however, we have to nurture a culture where hope and possibility still exist.
That may be why I resonated so strongly when Kevin Kelly said “ We require a strong dose of optimism” in his recent TED talk The Future will be shaped by Optimists.
In a world “When we are compressing our news cycle to the last five minutes and the next five minutes, all the things that have changed in the last five minutes are kind of bad stuff” it is easy to see why doom and gloom headlines are taking their toll on a young, impressionable generation.
With that comes a marked increase in mental health issues. “Depression, self-harm and suicide are rising among American adolescents.” started a New York Times article “It’s Life or Death’: The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens by Matt Richtel.
Which makes it all the more urgent that we search out opportunities to share messages of hope and possibility.
“During early adulthood youth seek deeper answers to the quintessential question “Who am I?” Identity does not happen in isolation. It happens in the context of new ideas and significant relationships.” Prof. Nancy E Hill continues in her book The End of Adolescence, during this time they are deconstructing, re-evaluating and reconstructing belief systems. They learn to embrace uncertainty as inevitable. That is why it is crucial that at this pivotal stage of their development we feed this age group a serious serving of hope.
Mental wellness is why I started talking about the Future of Work. “There are enough headlines reminding us of the challenges ahead,” I shared with a writer in my last Write of Passage cohort, “so I’m on a mission to flip the algorithm by writing hope-ful(l) headlines.”
Talking BTS, hope and the Future of Work
Which leads me back to BTS. For those who did not catch last week’s newsletter, BTS is a Korean boy band. But wait. As we will soon discover, they are much more than that.
In last week’s funnel visual, I was analyzing how the algorithm placed BTS on my radar.
This week I decided to explore what turned my passing interest in K-pop from sticky to stickier.
And it all centres around hope and the Future of Work.
It happened while I was watching a BTS video "Permission to dance". Suddenly - like an 18-wheeler screeching to a halt as a toddler darts out onto a crosswalk - my attention pinged into high gear “… W A I T …. I recognize that location. It's the floor of the UN General Assembly!” So, how do seven guys from Korea get permission to film a pop video on the floor of the general assembly?
Well. That simple question led me down a very interesting rabbit hole and moved BTS from “of interest” to “definitely stickier” on my radar
The Permission to Dance video stopped me dead in my tracks
BTS members speak to the UN General Assembly on the UN Sustainability goals
UN’s Under-Secretary-General Melissa Fleming’s interview with Korean President Moon and BTS re their role as Presidential Envoys for Future Generations and Culture.
If you have time to watch just one, I recommend the twelve minutes it takes to watch the interview. (Transcript available on request.) That was when I realized that this group had moved beyond making good music to making music for good. They are a movement and an indicator of what is possible for a young person in FoW. During the pandemic, they took extra steps to write songs that recognized the impact the pandemic was having on young people around the world and talked bluntly about self-care.
They have tremendous reach through their diverse fan base which numbers well north of 14 million worldwide (… yup, you heard me). As Korean President, Moon Jae-In explains in the interview “I believe that they are a very special group in the sense that they are returning the love they receive from their fans all over the world through spreading this positive influence all around the world. Therefore, I believe that there is no better candidate than BTS that can represent and speak up for younger generations. And I believe that they can draw out more participation from the younger generation throughout the process of SDG implementation.”
Just as the “We are the World” video in 1985 used music to galvanize that era’s younger generation to help the famine crisis in Africa (thanks to Chris Wong for reminding me of this parallel), BTS is using the power of music to bring attention and energy to the UN Sustainability Goals which include climate, eradicating world hunger and providing access to education.
BTS member Kim Nam-Joon (better known as RM) says “we’re faced with a variety of challenges and difficulties that we need to surmount so we understand the SDGs can be goals that we can work together with globally, locally, in civil society; 17 Goals that we need to meet together. We are today’s generation as well as the future generations, we still have many days left to live. Therefore the SDGs strike a balance between today’s generation and tomorrow’s generation in order to achieve equal benefits for all. Since we are part of today’s generation and tomorrow’s generation, we understand the importance of the SDGs and we feel a great responsibility.”
Chris asked me, “What does BTS bring to the table? Could it be they bring POP to this important topic?” From a communications perspective, we want to create engagement (or stickier) around important topics, and POP is the acronym for Personal-Observational-Playful
Personal - in their speeches they talked about their own experiences when the pandemic hit and its effect on them
Observational - clearly, they are experiencing the same challenges that their generation/cohort is experiencing. They chose to change the conversation and reframe the rhetoric from Lost Generation to Welcoming Generation with their own anthem “Permission to Dance” written by Ed Sheeran.
Playful - as a pop group they bring light and play to the SDGs. They make it engaging to be connected to this initiative.
Sign me up!
Sidebar on UN Sustainability Goals
These 17 goals represent some of the bigger problems facing us and our planet at present. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) are a great framework for discussing the purpose and interests of emerging adults. I have been advocating the use of this framework as a conversation starter since 2018.
People (of all ages) will find at least one item on here that pushes their buttons and on which they have strong feelings. For those who worry that the FoW threatens to take jobs away, I counter: focus on developing a body of knowledge around the problem that either inspires or upsets you the most. Start the conversations early, at the dinner table and in the classrooms. Participate in solving the problem and you have job security for at least two decades. Job titles and roles may be disappearing. But the problem set isn’t.
BTS brings a message of hope
They hit all my high notes:
- the message of hope and possibility for a young generation
- ambassadors to revitalize the UN sustainability goals which have a 2030 deadline
- broader mission putting music to big purpose
- collective responsibility and mission to care for the earth
- a strong self-care message
- a strong sense of community
And suddenly, I had moved from sticky to stickier with BTS.
I am happy to recognize and broadcast the message of hope that BTS is drumming out to fans of all ages.
And I ask you to please consider - where can you find the inspiration to broadcast a message of hope to the young people around you? It could be music, sport, literature. And they may be your students, recent graduates working for you, or your own children.
BTS band member Jung Ho-Seok, stage name J-Hope introduced himself on The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon "I’m your hope. You’re my hope. I'm J-Hope." To riff off that - my mission for my newsletter is to provide a message of hope and possibility. So,
“I’ll give you hope. Because you are our hope for the future.”
Remember, the best idea can come from anyone anywhere at any time. Let’s nurture a culture where hope and possibility exist.
How will you choose to spread a message of hope today?
Other essays in the BTS cluster:
E32: Sticky to Stickier - understanding algorithms in this new world
E33: Hunting for Hope - Where BTS and FoW intersect
E58: Dinosaurs, BTS, K-conomics - alternate revenue streams
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Playlist for your E33 listening pleasure:
The BTS angle feels like the most Karena post ever. Quirky, culturally relevant, with a side of hope + justice. Love it!
Such a great post Karena, so many ways we can do better. I’m currently reading Jane McGonagle’s book ‘Imaginable’ - highly recommend it. There’s also the forthcoming book, ‘The Carbon Almanac’, a powerful initiative by Seth Godin and many hundreds of volunteers - hope plus action informed by facts.