The Social Generation

Pictured from left to right: Saleem Al Dabbah, Alsa Saa,
Aseel Al Dabbah, Lily Buder, Lily Greenberg-Call,
Hadas Ben David, Sydney Sussman,  Leeor Acrich

The Social Generation

Lily Rebecca Buder

Teenagers are teenagers wherever you are in the world. One may assume that most teens across our globe would live completely different lives with polarized values and beliefs, but in the aftermath of globalization and in the midst of social revolutions globally that is far from the truth. In the small town of Deir al-Asad Israel, lives a vibrant group of strong, intelligent, and socially aware teenagers.

            One may assume that Arab youth would lead drastically different lives then those of their American counterparts but that illusionary wall began to disintegrate today in a coexistence seminar. 

Initially many of us didn’t know what to expect from this meeting. Would it be awkward? Would it be cold tempered? These very well could’ve been possibilities in the eyes of many Americans. The result however was far from the pessimistic outlook of many.

Although we are a world apart physically at our homes, our interests and hopes for the future were very similar with only a few exceptions that were expected. The conversation, however set up it was, felt natural and comfortable. Much of the conversation consisted of discussion of our hopes for the future and our interests.  Although not everyone knew exactly what he or she wanted to do in the future it was clear that we were all driven to succeed and be happy in life.

Social Media also played a major part in kindling the new friendships; by the end everyone had contacted each other through Facebook, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. Plenty of “selfies” were taken by everyone together which may seem like an insignificant piece of our modern “Tech Obsessed” culture, but can really be seen as our desire to remember and cherish the friendships and that experience. In the postmodern world technology may be criticized as something that creates barriers, I’ve only experienced bridges through it. Instead of this being a one-time experience, it has been allowed to continue and nourish friendships through social media.

The fact that they are Israeli Muslims, and we are Jewish Americans didn’t mean much of a difference to anyone involved, in fact it wasn’t even considered in how we went about conversation. Our laid back conversation only turned to politics about the region towards the end of our time together but even then we shared a common goal for the future of Israel and the surrounding region, “Peace”.