Morocco’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) has devoted a significant part of its annual report to the country’s youth, examining how economic, social, technological, cultural and environmental shifts are reshaping their lifestyles, social ties and civic participation, Aujourd’hui le Maroc reports.
Young people aged 15 to 34 make up roughly 12 million people, or nearly 32 percent of Morocco’s population, though the council stresses this group is far from being homogeneous, spanning widely different circumstances, qualification levels and access to opportunity.
While the CESE’s work has previously documented challenges facing youth around economic precarity, professional integration and equitable access to opportunity, its latest point of vigilance focuses on a less-studied dimension: how young people express themselves, communicate and socialize, particularly through digital spaces that now sit at the center of daily life for much of this generation.
Hearings conducted by the council with researchers, experts and young people themselves point to a broader shift in social practices and communication reference points, not merely a change in tools or channels. The report describes today’s youth, including Moroccans abroad, as a largely connected generation often termed “digital natives,” whose intensive, near-continuous use of digital tools for communication, learning, work and social interaction is reshaping how social bonds form across increasingly hybrid private, academic, professional and public spaces.
According to the CESE, rapid and continuous access to a wide range of content, much of it international, broadens young people’s frames of reference and shapes how they view their own situation relative to others, at times generating tension and heightened expectations of institutional responsiveness. Podcasts, blogs and online platforms have become key spaces where young people directly express opinions and demands, and where narratives around aspirations for autonomy, dignity, decent work and a fairer Morocco take shape.
The council also points to a shift from traditional forms of engagement toward “digital activism” built around social networks and collaborative platforms, including crowdfunding and donation drives. It cites the mobilization seen after the Al Haouz earthquake as an example of young people’s capacity to rapidly organize solidarity and mutual aid through digital tools, reflecting renewed forms of collective engagement.
