在最好與最壞時代的交界，年輕人準備好了嗎？

At the common boundary of the best and the worst of times, are young people ready for it?

英國文豪狄更斯的小說《雙城記》，開頭是這樣寫的，「這是最好的時代，也是最壞的時代。」，這兩句話對於當代的年輕人來說，應該特別有感。由於世代的推進、社會發展的日趨成熟，身處這個時代的年輕人對於人生走向的選擇或許增加了，然而選擇背後所帶來的機會是否樂觀卻不得而知，肩負的壓力反而相對沉重，除了要面對經濟成長趨緩、通膨加劇的窘境，也因全球少子化的浪潮，年輕人接下來得分擔更多老年人的生計，除此之外，在面對全球氣候變遷帶來日趨惡化的極端氣候，年輕人對於未來的環境發展也越趨悲觀，甚至出現了「氣候焦慮」；世代的發展帶來新的機會，年輕人在面對前述多元壓力的同時，卻又享受許多前人留下來的成果，特別是科技的進步，資訊變得更加透明、流通，藉由網路，年輕人不但可以吸收到許多資訊，更可以讓自己的聲音，進行跨國串流，藉此把個人訴求即時傳遞到世界的任何角落，喚起世人的關注，瑞典少女童貝里（Greta Thunberg）就是一個很好的例子。也因此，相較於過去，現代的年輕人更容易取得掌握話語權的機會，把自己的意見像漣漪一樣地向外擴散，增加自己在國際議題上的影響力。

At the beginning of the novel 'A Tale of Two Cities' by the British writer, Charles Dickens, says: 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times', which should be particularly touching to contemporary young people. Due to the advancement of generations and the maturity of social development, young people in this era may have more choices about their life direction. However, they cannot be sure that the chances presented by their choices are optimistic because the burden they bear is relatively heavy. In addition to facing the dilemma of slowing economic growth and rising inflation, as well as a global decline in birth rates, young people will share more of the responsibility for caring for the livelihood of the elderly. What's more, due to the worsening extreme climate brought about by global climate change, young people are becoming more and more pessimistic about the future environmental development, and they even have the 'climate anxiety'. The development of generations brings new opportunities. While facing the multiple pressures mentioned above, young people enjoy many achievements left by their predecessors, especially the advancement of technology, information has become more transparent and has flown faster than before. Through the internet, young people can not only absorb a lot of information, but also allow their voices to be streamed across borders, so as to instantly transmit their personal appeals to any corner of the world and arouse the attention of the people, and the Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, is a good example to explain this situation. Therefore, compared with the past, modern young people are more likely to obtain the opportunity to hold the right to speak, spread their opinions outward like ripples, and increase their influence on international issues.