Last article: To help young people "have a strong ideology and standard perception"
New challenges on the ideological front in the digital age require Party committees and Youth Union organizations at all levels to deploy synchronous solutions to more effectively promote the role and responsibility of youth in protecting the Party's ideological foundation; and fight against erroneous and hostile viewpoints in many aspects, especially in cyberspace.
Author: Khanh Ly - Thanh Quynh
New challenges on the ideological front in the digital age require Party committees and Youth Union organizations at all levels to deploy synchronous solutions to more effectively promote the role and responsibility of youth in protecting the Party's ideological foundation; and fight against erroneous and hostile viewpoints in many aspects, especially in cyberspace.
Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW of the Politburo on the Strategy for National Defense in Cyberspace has determined: “The explosive development of breakthrough technology has caused profound changes in both quality and quantity in cyberspace, which is predicted to bring unprecedented benefits to human society but also pose potential risks and huge challenges for all countries.”
In fact, social networks have been dominating the media space, digital technology has become a world that attracts the attention of young people, concentrated in the age group of 16 to 30 years old (accounting for about 30% of the country's population). In Nghe An alone, according to data from the Statistical Yearbook, the most common age of social network users is from 18 to 34 years old, in which, the time spent on "surfing" social networks, searching for information, reading news accounts for about 95%, Facebook and Zalo are the two most used platforms, with a rate of 100%, followed by YouTube (92.7%) and TikTok (91.7%). This is a force with a lot of potential in terms of health, intelligence and the ability to apply technology, adapting to the rapid changes of the domestic and international environment.
However, as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam To Lam pointed out in the article “The Future for the Rising Generation”: “The popularity of international media, social networks and entertainment has caused many young people to increasingly distance themselves from the nation’s typical cultural values, such as traditional art forms, folk festivals, traditional cuisine, and even the moral values and spirit of community solidarity that are the unique beauty of the Vietnamese people. Social evils and crime rates among young people are becoming increasingly complex and are creeping into the lives of a significant number of young people, weakening the nation’s lineage.”
In addition, taking advantage of the psychological characteristics of young people, which are easily accessible to new things, love freedom, self-assertion, but have limited awareness of political and social issues, hostile forces have used many sophisticated tricks, making full use of social networks to infiltrate and promote the process of "self-evolution" among young people. They set up websites, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, open "forums", "clubs", form associations and groups online... to disseminate information, documents, images, video clips with bad, toxic, and false content to attack and deny the country's achievements; defame the leaders of the Party and State, distort the Party and State's policies and guidelines, and deny the path to socialism in Vietnam. Many young people are lured and incited by distorted, bad, and toxic information from hostile forces, showing signs of fading faith and ideals, losing direction in their efforts, pursuing a pragmatic lifestyle, lacking responsibility for family and society, falling into social evils...
These are negative phenomena and manifestations that require timely and correct identification in order to have effective preventive measures. Because it not only directly threatens the lives and future of young people but also directly threatens the future of the country.
Resolution No. 35-NQ/TW dated October 22, 2018 of the Politburo clearly stated: It is necessary to promote propaganda and education for all classes of people, especially the young generation, to enhance resistance and the ability to proactively fight against erroneous and hostile views on the Internet.
To carry out this task well in the digital age, it requires Party committees, authorities and Youth Union and Association organizations at all levels to diversify propaganda forms and increase the application of digital transformation in political theory education to bring about practical results.
Comrade Nguyen Hong Soa - Head of Student Political Affairs Department (Vinh University) said: Digital transformation in political and ideological education for students is not simply about digitizing lectures or applying software to educational activities, but also about transforming the entire way, method, and interaction with students in the digital space; suitable for the context of the explosive industrial revolution 4.0. For example, Vinh University is currently applying a form of direct education combined with online, expanding the scale of classes, seminars, programs, and events to thousands of people through specialized software such as Facebook, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet... or the LMS learning management system. These digital platforms increase the ability of two-way interaction, helping those doing propaganda work to easily receive critical opinions, recommendations... from which, they can receive and respond promptly to students.
Also mentioning solutions to improve the effectiveness of educating revolutionary ideals, ethics, and cultural lifestyles for youth and teenagers on cyberspace, Comrade Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy - Secretary of the Provincial Youth Union affirmed: Youth Union chapters at all levels always identify digital technology platforms as an important bridge to bring the Youth Union closer to the young generation. This is also a convenient tool to grasp ideas, increase the effectiveness of educating revolutionary ethics for youth, and at the same time is a sharp tool in protecting the Party's ideological foundation.
Currently, over 80% of social networking sites of the Youth Union from the provincial to grassroots levels connect and share unified information, 90% of Youth Union, Association, Team officials, union members, association members and 80% of youth and teenagers are propagandized and actively implement the code of conduct on social networks, 80% of Youth Union officials and union members study new directives, resolutions and policies of the Party and the Youth Union through the Youth Union's digital platforms.
Comrade Nguyen Manh Phong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Youth Union added that the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Youth Union has changed the propaganda method, changed the interactive environment from "monologue" to "dialogue", from traditional to online. At the same time, continue to consolidate and improve the quality and quantity of volunteers, quick response on cyberspace, provincial-level reporters; Provincial Youth Theory Club and Provincial Steering Committee 35. This is a force with strong political will, steadfast ideological stance, and good digital skills. They have both carried out news routes and articles to refute the distorted arguments of hostile forces; and carried out the task of propaganda and ideological orientation for union members and youth on sensitive issues and hot events, helping young people have "correct information, sufficient awareness" of the nature of the matter. From there, follow the 5k rule: "Do not believe immediately - Do not rush to like - Do not add - Do not provoke - Do not rush to share".
At the 12th National Congress of the Youth Union, the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong advised, “Participating in building and protecting the Party and the political system is the responsibility and political right of union members, youth and the Youth Union organization, and is an important and regular task of the Youth Union at all levels. The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union must regularly supplement the Party's youthful vitality with a contingent of party members recruited from outstanding union members and qualified young cadres…”.
In recent times, the movement "Youth Union members strive to become members of the Communist Party of Vietnam" has been widely implemented by Youth Union chapters at all levels in Nghe An province. Typically, in Nam Dan district, in 2024, Youth Union organizations in the area introduced 127 outstanding members, of which 111 were admitted to the Party. At Vinh University, on average, each year, the Youth Union introduces more than 250 - 300 outstanding members to the Party. The whole school currently has more than 1,000 party members who are students. Thanks to the good environment, many party members who are students of the school have matured in theory and awareness, becoming the core force in the work of training outstanding nuclei to join the Party. A typical example is young party member Nguyen Nhu Mai Chi - a student of class 16A2 majoring in Literature Pedagogy, Deputy Secretary of the Party Cell of Social Pedagogy students at the School of Education (Vinh University). With the thought that “youth joining the Party is also a way to protect the Party’s ideological foundation”, besides promoting pioneering and exemplary role in studying and training, Mai Chi actively propagates and mobilizes students to strive to become Party members. Currently, class 16A2, majoring in Literature Pedagogy, of Mai Chi has 13 student Party members; the Social Pedagogy Student Party Cell has 150 student Party members.
In the Youth Union organizations of the military bloc such as the Nghe An Border Guard Youth Force, the work of training resources and developing new Party members has been concretized by implementing Directive No. 05 of the Politburo; Directive No. 87 of the Central Military Commission on "Studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style" associated with the campaign "Promoting tradition, dedicating talent, worthy of being Uncle Ho's soldiers"... From there, select and introduce elite cores "standard in awareness, steadfast in politics", absolutely loyal to the Fatherland and the people for the Party to consider and admit. In the past 5 years, 171 Youth Union members of the Border Guard Force have attended political theory training classes to admit to the Party; of which, 155 elite members have been admitted to the Party.
According to statistics from the Provincial Youth Union Organizing Committee, from 2017 to the end of 2024, Nghe An province had more than 18,700 members admitted to the Party. In 2024 alone, the whole province had 6,204 party members admitted, of which 3,718 were from elite members, reaching a rate of over 60%.
In the article "Future for the rising generation", Comrade To Lam - General Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam emphasized: "The Youth Union needs to promote the spirit of dedication and the vanguard role of young people in socio-economic development, ensuring national defense and security, international integration; developing science and technology; innovative startups; digital transformation; protecting the Party's ideological foundation, fighting against erroneous and hostile views; participating in preventing, combating and reducing crime rates among young people".
When visiting and congratulating Nghe An Provincial Youth Union on the occasion of the 94th anniversary of the founding of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (March 26, 1931 - 2025), Comrade Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province also requested the Standing Committee of the Provincial Youth Union to continue to improve the quality of the Youth Union organization; strongly promote the pioneering, voluntary and creative role of young people in professional work; especially in the task of advising, applying digital transformation, participating in promoting social security, ensuring national defense and security and solving difficult and new tasks in agencies and units.
Imbued with these guiding thoughts, in addition to doing a good job of political and ideological education to "build a strong root, a strong tree", the Provincial Youth Union - Youth Union - Student Association of Nghe An province determined: Continue to implement solutions to build a Youth Union - Association that is strong in ideology and strong in action; focus on applying technology, building new models, good ways to improve the quality of Youth Union activities, creating attractiveness, attracting a large number of union members and young people to voluntarily participate. Thereby, creating a basis for uniting, gathering, educating youth, leading the young generation to promote their role, responsibility, and shouldering the mission in the era of national growth; participating in building a strong Party and political system; fighting against hostile forces that violate the ideological foundation of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
