Flow of Knowledge...

Dear Youth...

During my high school years, in my physical sciences class, I learn about "Fiber Optics", oh what a beautiful thing they are.

Below is the technical definition of this type of technology:

"A fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of which is capable of transmitting messages modulated onto light waves. Fiber optics has several advantages over traditional metal communications lines: Fiber optic cables have a much greater bandwidth than metal cables."  [www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/fiber_optics.html]

Key Notes:
1. "transmitting messages"

This is the aim of this Blog, to transmit messages, to transfer knowledge back and forth, and to support one another. There will be a variety of topics, Academics, Religion, Politics, Philosophies, Relationship problems, Family Problems (Not personal, but how to deal with general family problems), sport, you name it, if you can think of it, it will be here.

2. "light waves"

All these things will happen amongst our beautiful youth at the speed of light, meaning they must happen fast, "fast" as in ASAP, "ASAP" as in NOW. We have to tackle challenges and  untangle the troubles the youth of Mzantsi is facing, as many as possible. We have to uplift one another, these competition tendencies have to stop, it's enough now. Yes, you got your Degree first, congrats!!! * a round of applause*... Now you must pull the Brothers and Sisters still in mud, instead of showing off and bragging about your success in their faces. Yes you might feel good while doing that, but what good does it do for the community, how is it contributing to a better South Africa. If your answer is "there is one more qualified professional, the South African labour force will benefit from my knowledge and skill"... that's not what am talking about, then the question for you will have to be "How is your qualification benefiting your family, extended family, your neighbourhood, etc. (and the circles get bigger)". 


3. "several advantages over traditional metal communications lines"

We are the "fibre optic" generation in the sense that we have several advantages over our parents, grand-parents, grand-grand parents, (and the list goes on till Adam & Eve).

We as the youth need to communicate and integrate with each other in revolutionary ways, we need to upgrade our ways of thinking, we have to take technology and use it to our advantage. We live in the information age, an age where people become billionaires without breaking a sweat, creating an App is an example. We are just not using this beautiful time to our advantage. Oh, what a beautiful time to be alive...

Let me give you typical examples of how the youth is not using this time to its advantage:

1. A laptop 
If you could give someone a laptop today and come back after a year just to check what that person has been up to. I promise you, 97% of the storage space will have Movies, Music and Picture, a few documents, but it would be for school research, there would be no Pdf books that were downloaded for own personal research or just to boost one's general knowledge. If you check the web browser's history page, 97% of the pages will be Facebook, YouTube and pornographic material.

If your grandmother was part of the middle-working class back in the days, she probably used a typewriter to generate documents, that thing was heavy and if you made a mistake you start over. Later personal computers were made, still heavy, but now YOU have a portable personal computer, you can read or write a book from anywhere in the World, you just have to be close to a power source, and that's it, for goodness's sake you can put in on you "lap". Some don't read, but they use their laptops to produce music, big up to them, keep hustling. find your passion, link it to the device and use the bloody device to your advantage.

2. Free-WiFi
Tell a student there is free WiFi in the area, the first 3 likely actions they will take is open:
a) Facebook
b) YouTube
c) Download Movies and TV Series

Hey, am not saying don't have fun, but have a balance, download a few books now and then (read them), if you are lazy to read books like me, download a few documentaries, my point is, find a way to transfer knowledge from you PC to your mind, knowledge you can benefit from, you won't benefit from knowing that so and so "is in a relationship" or "is now single", you won't benefit from knowing the latest funny vine/music videos.

For example, in university, I knew a gentleman by the name Sisabulela Kula, he was my roommate, he once used his laptop to teach himself how to programme. SK used his laptop to try out App ideas he had, he is now using his laptop to do designs, he studied Mechanical Engineering.

See what I mean!!!

3. A "Smart Phone".
Give someone a smartphone, let them use it for a week or two, I guarantee you, that phone will have more than one of the following Apps:
a) Whatsapp
b) Facebook
c) Twitter
d) Instagram
e) Mxit (Back in the days)

Hayi, this is something else, a device made to make communication easy, has destroyed the actual communication its self. Today's youth has lost the skill to communicate, a typical teenager can have +1500 virtual friends and -0 real friends... ku-bird...

We live at an advantageous time, let's use technology to empower ourselves...

4. "greater bandwidth"

I urge the youth to increase to increase its bandwidth,

Wikipedia defines bandwidth "In computing, bandwidth is the bit-rate of available or consumed information capacity"

As we (the youth of today) live in this advantageous time of the "information age", let us utilise the advantages at our disposal to their optimum capacity. For example, our parents had to buy newspapers and go to libraries to access information, we can get more that they could get in a week in one day, just sitting at home. The tools are there, we just have to use them.

Today, I Mzukhona Hlazo, would like to introduce the new and improved youth to be, *Glasses up* here's to the "Optic Generation Youth" (anyone can give it a nickname).

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Blog, may this blog informative, may it be what I wish it to be, may it empower the youth and take us where we need to be. I can't do it, but WE can. So let's put our Nikes on and Let's Do It...

Some inspiration from a great man:

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

― Muhammad Ali

Note: Please feel free to forward any material that can be shared with our fellow youth on this Blog, More-Problems, More-Knowledge, so bring the Problems (email address: mhlazo@yahoo.com )... and I beg you, if you have the link, please, pretty please *am kneeling right now*, share it with your friends and family, at home, school and work, we need as many people as we can on this platform, we need critical thinkers, we even need them haters so they can motivate us. Like I said, I can't do it, but WE can. Thank you.

(Sorry if I wasted your time)

Yours Truly
Fellow Optic-Gen-Youth