Kexuan Hu's speech explores the concept of community and the challenges faced by the younger generation in building meaningful connections in the digital age. She highlights the growing preference for digital communication over face-to-face interactions and the impact of this on social identity and relationships. Hu shares her personal realization of valuing human connections over online metrics and discusses the concept of "ideological fragmentation" as a solution. She introduces the concept of the "initial five hundred meters" advocated by anthropologist Xiangbiao, emphasizing the importance of getting to know people within one's immediate vicinity. Hu then shares her research on a community-making initiative led by Agan, where public facilities and various activities fostered stronger connections among residents. She concludes by encouraging individuals to take initiative in creating their own communities and promoting the value of real-life connections over virtual ones. Kexuan Hu is a freshman at the International Department of Jinling High School in Nanjing, China. She is a student expert in community making, which is the study of the mobilization of social resources to achieve self-organization, self-governance, and self-development in a community. For the past year, she has been on a team of eight students from Jinling High School that is passionate about the method and public advocacy of community building. As a student, she wishes to change the connection between residents in her neighborhood and promote community participation. Her team successfully made it through the CTB (China Thinks Big) Global Finals with their project on community making and children participation. They presented their research results internationally at Harvard University in April 2023. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at [ Ссылка ]
