EWTN international marketing manager Edwin Lopez emphasized the need for parents and educators to listen to young people's frustrations, disappointments and dreams.
MANILA, Oct. 23, 2013—Relating with a ‘selfie’ generation is definitely at the heart of the New Evangelization and as a communication strategist suggests, listening to the youth can only make them more receptive and open.
“The problem is the home environment does not provide them the listening environment. Who are listening to them? Are their needs, frustrations, aspirations, disappointments, dreams being listened to?” Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) international marketing manager Edwin Lopez said during one of almost a hundred ‘streams’ or break-out talks of the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE) last October 17.
Imitating parents
During his talk titled ‘Connecting when Communicating’, Lopez explained that, this does not mean parents need to agree with everything their teenager tells them.
According to Lopez, who is also a board member of TV Maria, often, young people just need the affirmation that their parents listen to them.
“They are imposed upon, they are dictated upon, but are they listened to?” he asked.
Lopez mentioned how all kids from 7 to 13 years old are at the imitation stage of development where they merely mimic what they see their parents do.
“If parents are not listening to them genuinely, let us not expect that they will listen to their parents,” he said.
Face-to-face interaction
Lopez even went so far as to see a link between the recent pork barrel fund controversies and the impact of parental example.
“For Napoles to think that what she did was right, something happened at home…There was a problem at home,” he said.
For clueless parents and educators who think communicating with young people is a rocket science of sorts that requires a social network account, a recent study showed 49% of Filipino young people still prefer face-to-face interaction and find it more credible than online conversations, Lopez said.
The PCNE, which gathered 6,000 participants from all over the Philippines and Asia, aimed to re-energize the Philippine Church in response to the call for a New Evangelization.
It was held at the University of Sto. Tomas Quadricentennial Pavilion Annex from October 16 to 18. [Nirva’ana Ella Delacruz]
