Elijah Paul
Over the last few days London has experienced some of the worst rioting, looting, and violence that I’ve seen in my (short) lifetime. The majorty of which seems to have been perpetrated by a very specific age group. Youths. Ranging from those as young as 10 to those in their late 20s ( in some cases older ).
Motivation for, and the propagation of these riots is a much more complex matter than I’m prepared (or qualified) to cover here. Suffice to say that I believe it partly stems from multiple failings in many parts of society and government which has effectively bred a generation of youth that are misguided, disaffected, disengaged, apathetic, and suffering from disillusionment along with low self-esteem. This obviously does not excuse the atrocious behaviour of these rioters over the past 4 days, which has claimed livelihoods as well as lives.
One story that has received agency wide coverage is that Social Media networks were to blame, or were largely responsible for fuelling the riots by facilitating these groups of rioting youths with the means to organize themselves in creating this mayhem and destruction. Networks such as Twitter and BBM ( Blackberry Messenger ) bared the brunt of responsibility as the main ‘tools’ utilized. BBM in particular being described as a ‘shadow network’ by some news agencies!
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