That reality requires the work of educating revolutionary ideals, ethics, and lifestyle for the young generation to be strongly innovated in content and methods, aiming to orient correctly, foster political mettle, and arouse the aspiration to dedicate among youths in the current period.

Over the past years, political and ideological education work for adolescents and youths in Điện Biên province has seen many innovations in both content and methods. Not stopping at traditional activity forms, education work is implemented with many flexible and creative ways. Mùa Chiến Thắng, Secretary of the provincial Youth Union, said: “The provincial Youth Union focuses on expanding political and revolutionary ideal education and grasping and orienting the ideology of adolescents and youths to cyberspace. Strengthening positive information, detecting, fostering, and commending advanced examples; using cyberspace to educate, consolidate, and promote institutions and propaganda tools of the Youth Union to serve political tasks...”

Accordingly, on social platforms, union levels operate excitingly, regularly updating prestigious and positive information and images; sharing official and meaningful information. The campaign “Every day one good news, every week one beautiful story” on social networks continues to be maintained. Specifically, the “Tuổi trẻ Điện Biên” fanpage has 3,800 follower accounts; fanpages of grassroots unions also attract great interest and interaction. Social networking platforms regularly coordinate with agencies and units to spread beautiful stories and typical examples. On the electronic information portal of the provincial Youth Union, the column “Following Uncle Hồ’s Footsteps” continues to be maintained, ensuring at least 1 article/week for officials and union members to learn about Hồ Chí Minh’s ideology, morality, and style...

At the grassroots level, taking advantage of cyberspace to educate and orient ideology for union members and youths is becoming clearer. In Thanh Nưa commune, Nguyễn Anh Sơn, Secretary of the commune Youth Union, said: “After operating the new commune government model and establishing the Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union of Thanh Nưa commune, the commune Youth Union quickly built a fanpage, regularly updating images and information on activities of the Commune Youth Union and affiliated branches. At the same time, sharing useful information from official channels of the commune, province, Provincial Youth Union, and Central Youth Union, as well as prestigious channels participating in fighting and refuting wrongful and hostile arguments in cyberspace. Thereby, contributing to educating ethics, lifestyle, and revolutionary ideals for union members and youths in the area.”

Parallel with education in cyberspace, traditional education, fostering patriotism, and national pride continue to be focused on by union levels through many practical activities. Programs of lighting candles in gratitude, offering incense in commemoration; participating in cleaning and embellishing memorial areas and martyrs’ cemeteries; organizing visits and giving gifts to veterans and people with meritorious services to the revolution are maintained regularly, contributing to educating the young generation about the moral tradition “When drinking water, remember the source,” and responsibility to history and the homeland. Conferences, forums, thematic activities, and many effective models are organized and maintained such as: Young Theory Club, Young Dissemination Team, and cultural and sports playgrounds... contributing to raising awareness and fostering ideals, ethics, and a beautiful lifestyle for adolescents and youths.

Besides the achieved results, the work of educating revolutionary ideals for youths in the digital age is facing many challenges. Secretary of the provincial Youth Union Mùa Chiến Thắng pointed out: “The downsides of digital technology, especially fake news, misinformation, and toxic ideological streams, are significantly impacting the awareness of youths. A section of youths shows signs of chasing a pragmatic lifestyle, lacking the consciousness of training and striving, distancing themselves from traditional values and revolutionary ideals; faith and ambition are at risk of fading. Meanwhile, in some places, the content and form of educating revolutionary ideals are not really attractive, not keeping up with the trends and needs of youths in the context of digitization.”

To continue improving the efficiency of educating revolutionary ideals and promoting the role of youths in the digital age, the provincial Youth Union identifies the need to continue innovating the content and form of educating revolutionary ideals, strengthening the integration of knowledge about history, tradition, and national culture on digital platforms and social networks; diversifying ways of transmitting information with media products suitable for the tastes and access habits of young people. Along with that, focusing on building a healthy information environment in cyberspace, promoting the orienting role of media agencies and other organizations; simultaneously equipping youths with skills to select and analyze information, improving mettle, and proactively fighting against fake, bad, and toxic news...