KUALA LUMPUR: The Communications Minister is proposing new approaches to promote patriotism among Malaysian youths, particularly those from Generation Z and Generation Alpha.
Fahmi Fadzil said younger generations communicate in a vastly different way compared to the older generation.
“The way they see and receive information is through very different patterns and models. This is why the ministry must adapt the way it communicates messages about patriotism and love for the country.
“In the past, we may have relied on briefings and lectures. But for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, we may need to speak their language instead.
“Perhaps we need to look at such spaces as potential tools to spark and strengthen patriotic spirit,” he said in reply to a supplementary question from Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh (PH-Ledang).
Syed Ibrahim had requested the ministry to outline potential measures to strengthen patriotism among younger generations.
Fahmi added that leveraging popular digital spaces, such as online games, could be an effective tool in engaging young Malaysians and nurturing a stronger sense of national identity.
Generation Z, or Zoomers as they’re sometimes known, are the generation born between 1997 and 2012.
Gen Z are the first ‘digital native’ generation, meaning they’re the first generation in the West to have grown up in an internet age, which accounts for Gen Z’s widespread social media presence.
The generation after Gen Z is known as Gen Alpha.
Generation Alpha is the first generation to be born wholly in the 21st Century, and consists of people born between the early 2010s and the mid-2020s.
