Zoom Workshop 1- Gen Z/Millenials

Zoom Workshop: Gen X/Millenials

 On Friday the 19th of March, our group did our first workshop. The workshop was led by Jason and myself, with Cillian as a co-host to help us coordinate all of our participants into the Zoom meeting. 

The workshop mainly went to plan, with only a time setback of a few minutes due to some technical difficulties with getting the Zoom call set up. Between Jason and I, we asked our participants all of the questions we had laid out in our workshop plan and had some interesting discussions regarding the differences between our participants and the generations ahead of them.

 In particular, the question "what are some stereotypes people have about your generation?" gave our participants the opportunity to think about and share their opinions about the divide that exists between younger and older generations. The topic of mental health came up, in which our participants expressed that older generations don't have the same understanding of the issue as younger generations do. They felt as if older generations don't see mental health as something that should be an issue, and as a result of this the older generation holds a stereotype about younger generations being too emotional and sensitive. One participant also spoke about a stereotype older generations hold about the younger generation being 'troublemaking', simply just for existing in public spaces. Even though our participants felt the stereotypes held against them aren't fair, they had an understanding that older generations come from a time different to our own, which is what leads to the misunderstandings that can crop up between them. We came to the conclusion as a group that the solution is to keep their point of view in mind too, and try to be empathetic with them as possible.

After discussing these stereotypes, our participants took the time to reflect on how their generation treats their elders, and how this could possibly be improved upon. After asking our group the question of "do you think your generation/other generations could do more for your community?" one of our participants expressed that they had noticed how the Tidy Towns commitee in Carrigtwohill was mainly ran by the older generations that lived in the area. They were of the opinion the younger generation needed to help the older generation in maintaining the community areas too, and the rest of the participants were in agreement. 

In the second half of the workshop, we did our interactive section. Jason screenshared the Canva website and all of our participants collaborated with us in making a poster about understanding our fellow community, which we can post on our Instagram account in the coming weeks. The result was the following: 

 Additionally, we asked our participants to send in a selfie of themselves for us to edit and post on our instagram, and each of them was happy to do so. Overall, apart from a few technical difficulties, I believe our first workshop was successful, and I had an enjoyable time being one of the hosts for it.