Nairobi, 15 April 2011A three-day symposium organised by the Institute of Youth Ministry (IYM), came to an end today at Tangaza College. On three afternoons different experts shared their ideas to a large audience on the theme of www.youthcaughtintheweb.com The symposium is an annual event, and this year’s one was specially planned by Fr Hubert Pinto. On the first day, Mr Ronald Omboto, an IT-expert, led a three hour session on the history of Internet and the World wide web (WWW). He spoke also of the tremendous possibilities that exist due to this relatively new development. He also enumerated the socio economic political and cultural impact of the internet.
On the 2nd day, Fr Sahaya G. Selvam, SDB led the discussion on three sub-themes related to ‘youth caught in the web’. He began by clarifying and defining the meaning of addiction. He went on then to speak about the nature of addiction involved in the compulsive use of the internet. Finally he presented a summary of the data gathered among a sample of 426 youth in Nairobi on the Compulsive Use of the internet. This data is part of his ongoing PhD project. The findings show that almost 30% of the sampled youth aged between 18 and 30 exhibit signs of compulsive use of internet, most of whom suffer from some anxiety and depression.
There were two main speakers on the third day: Mr Hans Stoks and Mr Ndegwa – both doctors in theology. The theme of the sessions of this day was how to handle the temptation to be caught in the web, particularly focussing on the positive use of the internet. Their sessions had several practical guidelines on how the youth can remain free in the positive use of the internet.
The participants of the symposium, majority of whom were secondary school students, appreciated the well-informed inputs.