Wednesday, February 10, 2021

In New Planet Classroom Podcast Youth Teach Youth How to Create Impactful Stories for a Modern World

Humans appear to be in the middle of a cultural shift in communication. Research studies point to people’s attention spans continuing to shorten. A new global writing contest by Book Creator featured on the Planet Classroom Network YouTube Channel challenges young writers to create an impactful story for the world in just one page.

According to Orb, the virtual host of the new Planet Classroom show, 55,000 word novels are often competing with 280 character tweets. And so, if technology has changed the way audiences connect with stories, what does this mean about the communication skills young people around the world need to flourish?

According to young student writers in Scotland, Greece, and Texas, people must rethink the way they express themselves to modern audiences. “Before technology, the only way to tell stories was by mouth or in a book. Now we have audiobooks, podcasts, television, and many more,” says Magnus, a student in Scotland. Nikos, a student in Greece, notes that thanks to the internet, people’s lives are “full of images and rapid snap shots.” And as a result of this, writers “should be able to tell short stories and show in a vivid and colorful way various pieces of people’s experience.” Lennon in Texas stresses the importance of networking skills, pointing out that telling “short” stories is “a large part of how we develop personal connections with others as life goes on.”