Through the Lens of Tomorrow
Students share their experiences of living and studying in Lowestoft
In January 2024, Matthew Gwyther met with six GCSE and A Level students from East Coast College in Lowestoft to find out the hopes, aspirations and fears the young have for 2040.
In 2040 young people like you will be ruling the world. Do you think you’ll make a better job of it than the current generation?
Well, it would be nice to change things and make them better. But it’s not easy. We know that. We don’t blame our parents - it hasn’t been easy for them to alter that much. Our generation has a lot of hard decisions to make.
How do you feel about the state of the UK at the moment? Would you be in favour of reducing the voting age to 16 to allow more young people to have their say?
I don't think a lot of people in our generation pay much attention to politics because we don't really feel we can change stuff. There are not enough systems for us to actually put our voice out there. We don’t feel that listened to. And, if we’re honest we feel we have it within us to change some outcomes for the better if we had a bigger voice.
However, when you look at youth in general, I think there are a lot of us who get misled. Younger people don’t have a lot of life experience and we are more easily impressionable. When you turn 18 and you’re actually in the workforce, there's a bit more of an impact that makes on your life. I think as younger people, we don't have to deal with some of the responsibilities that adults do, so we might not be aware of what we might be changing.
You say that young people are perhaps more impressionable, but the older people, you know, are impressionable too. Brexit was a very divisive issue for our country. How many of you thought Brexit was a good idea?
Nobody paid much attention to it. Didn't really look at it. We didn’t vote, so it sort of passed us by. Was it just about markets and trade? Or was it about something bigger such as not wanting to join the Euro? That was a big decision but it didn’t seem like ours.
What do you feel is your identity? Do you feel European, British, English, from Suffolk?
Maybe none of these things. We certainly feel from Lowestoft.
“We do think looking back on it that it was quite a stupid idea to just sort of isolate ourselves and especially when we're trying to be co-operative with countries around the world coping with climate change and zero carbon.”
For us, we certainly have noticed that everything costs more after COVID. We don’t have an awful lot of money and when you don’t have much inflation hurts.Especially now with the Russia, Ukraine things, yeah, that's going to make things cost you more. So everyone's just going to be affected and the economic state of the country.
Before 2016, when we were in the EU, you could take your engineering qualification, go to work in Italy or Austria or Spain. It’s not as straightforward now. What do you think about it?
We notice the difference even with flights just going on holiday. Trying to go to Spain is so much more expensive than it would have been if we were there. Working in Europe could be great to learn new skills and progress our careers. But it’s unlikely we’ll rejoin for some time, I think it depends on who's in power.
Is there enough stuff to do for young people where you live in Suffolk?
Quite a lot we do is home-based. Films are more accessible on TV than they were for our parents’ generation. You don't feel the need to go to the cinema. It's more of a luxury. Rather than just watching the new film, it's to be shown. But we have a few good festivals up here including First Light. Although some of us Twent in 2022 and was a lot of thunder, lightning and drunk people. One of the best bits was the Pakefield Man - an iron and straw sculpture which was set on fire in the sea.
Some of us stayed up all night to watch the sunrise. That was special experience as it comes up over the North Sea and the first place in the UK to see the rising sun is Lowestoft. Not many people know that.
Latitude is good, it depends on the Lineup for the day. The people that go there are nice but if you want to go enjoy it, you want to go to enjoy the music as well.
We would just say one thing that upsets us - some attitudes towards things you love here. Yeah. There's a beautiful monument at Next point - a lovely sundial and that was vandalized a few months ago. The police were describing it as “youth.” You know, it was just so famous and then it's just been ripped apart by us and people our age and it's just quite upsetting. Why did they do something like that?
Some people you see are going in the right direction. Going to the gym, and educating themselves but there is a sort of large majority doing drugs, smoking. You see some people Tour age doing heavy drugs. We find that quite depressing.
Generally, we’re positive. We love the town where we live and want to see it improved.
What is your impression of college life here? Are there good links to industry?
The emphasis is on the practical. So you get a lot of your practical courses. We have hair, beauty, catering, hospitality, childcare courses and obviously you've got engineering and so there's a broad range.
Very good. We've got industry placements too though. And handing our CV into industry, you know, and then they'll review it and then we get information if we're in or we get an interview.
How do you feel about Nuclear in Suffolk and the technological advances that could be developed by 2040 to help Net Zero?
We’re engineers so we are practical people who want to change things and make the world better. That’s the idea. So, we consider nuclear and renewable energy and any other technologies that don’t yet exist.
I think the whole argument of technology versus humans is an entire other thing. I think it can help in some ways, but I don't think we should be as reliant on it. People have to change the way they behave and use energy, as well. That’s what being a responsible human being is all about.
We wonder about consistency and the battle with climate change. Take the issue of petrol and diesel cars. The ban on the sale of new diesel cars has been pushed back and back by the government. We know it has to happen but it’s always too difficult to see a way through.
But you can improve things incrementally. You know, you're looking at a combustion engine, you know, a piece of technology that and it's had some improvements, but it's been around for over a hundred years. And you can, you know, think about biofuels and the likes of hydrogen. You know, I think if we could look at improving them even further. As far as we’re concerned electric cars are a pipe dream. We can’t afford one - they cost stupid amounts of money. It’s not easy being young and doing the right thing if that costs a fortune.
“Innovation has to be the answer. People are experimenting and trying and then discovering and developing things.”
Are you worried about the climate? East Anglia has an incredibly intensive agricultural process. Do you think there could be different ways of doing it or not?
The weather has been odd over recent years. There’s a real generational difference in looking at why. Our grandparents say, in response to a warm December, “Ah, that’s a mini heatwave”. We suggest it might be climate change but that generation doesn’t believe in it.
We’ve had floods. One of our dads had the bottom ripped out of his car by water. We can see it happening in front of us.
The whole cost of living crisis has really damaged agriculture. Obviously, locally sourced foods are a good thing but they are very expensive. We’re conscious that we see a lot more processed foods in shops and things like that. They’re easier to get and affordable. But they aren’t the answer in the long term.