What happens when a generation that is constantly connected to the internet still feels disconnected from the decisions that shape its future?
For many young people in Kosovo, this is becoming an increasingly important question.
Kosovo is one of Europe’s highly connected societies. According to DataReportal’s Digital 2025: Kosovo report, there were approximately 1.62 million internet users in Kosovo at the beginning of 2025, representing 96.6 percent of the population. The country also had around 877,000 social media user identities, equivalent to 52.2 percent of the total population. Instagram alone had an estimated 626,000 users.
For young people in particular, social media is no longer simply a space for entertainment. It is a place where they discover news, follow political and social debates, communicate with friends, form opinions, and interact with their communities.
At the same time, young people are exposed to an enormous amount of information every day, much of it competing for their attention. Alongside reliable journalism and useful information, their feeds can contain misinformation, disinformation, manipulated content, and increasingly polarized narratives.
The challenge is whether they have the skills and confidence to understand, evaluate, and use that information responsibly.
Beyond “fake news”
The conversation about misinformation often focuses on whether people can identify false information.
But media literacy is much broader than simply recognizing fake news.
It involves understanding how information is produced and distributed, evaluating sources, identifying manipulation techniques, recognizing missing context, and understanding how digital platforms influence what people see.
The need for these skills is not limited to formal education.
Young people encounter information constantly, often outside classrooms and traditional media environments. They encounter it through TikTok videos, Instagram posts, YouTube channels, messaging groups, online communities, and conversations with friends.
This means that media literacy needs to exist not only as a lesson, but as an everyday skill.
Being able to evaluate information affects more than an individual’s online experience. It affects how people understand their communities, interact with others, and make decisions about issues that affect their lives.
This is the starting point for my project, “Digital Civic Voices: Empowering Young Women for Online Participation.”
Turning digital skills into civic participation
Through the Digital Spark grant program, I am working with young people and women in Kosovo, with particular attention to participants from rural areas and communities that are often underrepresented in public conversations in Kosovo.
The project focuses on strengthening media literacy, critical thinking, and ethical digital engagement.
The training is designed to be practical. Twelve participants will work with real examples of online content to explore how to verify information, assess sources, and identify misleading narratives.
They will also examine their own digital habits and how algorithms, social media platforms, and online communities influence the information they encounter.
The project goes beyond teaching participants how to recognize misinformation.
It aims to help them become more confident digital citizens who can use their knowledge to participate constructively in their communities.
This means encouraging participants to create responsible content, engage in public discussions, challenge false narratives, and develop digital initiatives around issues that matter to them.
The underlying approach is simple: Media literacy should not only protect people from harmful information. It should also give them the tools to become active participants in the digital public sphere.
From consumers to contributors
One of the challenges surrounding digital participation is that being highly active online does not automatically translate into meaningful civic engagement.
This does not necessarily reflect a lack of interest. For many young people, the barriers are confidence, access, and a lack of clear opportunities to participate.
Some may feel that public discussion belongs to politicians, journalists, or established activists. Others may hesitate to express their views because of criticism, harassment, or the fear of being misunderstood.
This is particularly important for young women and young people from rural areas, who may face additional social and geographical barriers to participation.
The Digital Spark project seeks to address this gap by connecting knowledge with action.
The purpose is to give them practical experience in using digital tools for constructive civic engagement.
A participant may create a short video explaining how to verify online information. Another may develop a social media campaign around an issue affecting young people in their community. Others may use digital storytelling to bring attention to issues that receive limited public visibility.
These activities provide an important opportunity for participants to see themselves differently: Not simply as audiences consuming digital content, but as people capable of creating content and influencing conversations.
From training to advocacy
The project also connects media literacy with a broader advocacy process.
In September, the project is expected to culminate in a final event in cooperation with SBunker and the wider Digital Democracy Initiative advocacy activities. The event will provide an opportunity to bring together participants and relevant stakeholders to discuss misinformation, media literacy, youth participation, and the wider challenges facing Kosovo’s digital environment.
This connection between training and advocacy is important.
Developing individual digital skills can impact how people consume and create information, but broader change also requires conversations among citizens, civil society, and institutions.
The aim is to create space for young people to share their experiences, discuss the challenges they encounter online, and contribute to conversations about how digital participation can become more meaningful and inclusive.
From scrolling to shaping
Kosovo’s young people are already online. The challenge is to ensure that they have the skills, confidence, and opportunities to use digital spaces purposefully.
Democratic cultures are built through many small actions. They are built when people question information before sharing it, listen to perspectives different from their own, communicate responsibly, and recognize that their individual choices contribute to the wider environment around them.
Young people do not necessarily need to spend less time online.
They need more opportunities to make that time meaningful.
That is what I hope my project can contribute to: A generation of informed and confident digital citizens who move beyond passive consumption and begin to see digital spaces as places where they can create, participate, and influence the conversations shaping their communities.
