In the United States, the so-called woke phenomenon reached its peak of popularity a couple of years ago. Now the popularity is waning. This was the assessment reached by the respected over the weekend British magazine The Economist.
According to the newspaper, the popularity of value-liberal woke opinions has decreased in opinion polls. The use of words related to the phenomenon, such as “white privilege”, “intersectionality” and “oppression” has also decreased in media and research.
Specialist researcher of the Youth Research Society Antti Kivijärvi does not unreservedly believe the conclusions of The Economist.
According to him, the magazine seems to be overestimating the changes of recent years and underestimating the fact that Western countries have been changing for decades in a more value-liberal direction.
According to Kivijärvi, values change slowly.
– It’s awfully easy to make headlines about changes, but in these questions composure is a trump card, says Kivijärvi in an interview with .
Woke is a contested concept
In Kivijärvi’s opinion, the fact that the magazine bundles a large number of liberal values and attitudes under the concept of woke is also questionable. Woke is a very politicized word.
– The terminology is jarring, says Kivijärvi.
Originally born in African-American slang, the word woke came into use by the general public at the time of the US Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. For value liberals, woke means, for example, awareness of racist and discriminatory structures.
Conservatives, on the other hand, use the word for left-wing ideology, which they interpret as favoring the rights of minority groups at the expense of individual freedoms and freedom of speech.
In this video, Kivijärvi explains how the woke concept, which refers to awareness, was born and how it has become a political polemic:
The use of woke words has decreased in the media
In an extensive article, The Economist reviews, for example, various opinion polls and media content.
According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center this year, 35 percent said they were very concerned about racial issues. Three years earlier, i.e. in 2021, the corresponding figure was higher, 48 percent.
The Economist also studied the word choices of quality magazines. For example, the term “white privilege” appeared approximately 2.5 times per million words in 2020. In 2023, the term appeared only 0.4 times per million words.
However, in all sectors studied, the figures were still significantly higher than in 2015.
“There is no huge wave movement to be seen”
According to Kivijärvi, even in Finland’s latest youth barometer, it can be seen that the decades-long change in values to become more and more liberal has leveled off.
However, the change is so recent that it is not possible to draw very far-reaching conclusions.
– There can always be small bumps as a result of the political debate, but there is no huge wave movement to be seen, says Kivijärvi.
Young people are still much more liberal than a few decades ago.
Kivijärvi is also not convinced by the fact that The Economist evaluates the fading of the woke phenomenon based on the words used by the media and researchers. In the public debate, very fast swings can happen when new issues come on the agenda.
– Another question is how people’s values and attitudes change or whether they change at all, Kivijärvi says.
The survey published by in the spring also shows that in the last couple of years, the support for equality has remained the same among girls and decreased among boys.
Big differences between the sexes
Helsingin Sanomat published last March, according to a study, young women in Finland are clearly more “woke-conscious” than men.
– In Finland, the values of young women have moved in a more liberal direction over the past ten years. For men, no similar development has taken place, but their values have remained the same, Kivijärvi sums up.
The situation is similar in the United States. There, too, the value differences between the sexes can be explained precisely by women’s values becoming more liberal than before:
Around the world has been in the news this year about the growing differences in the values of young women and men.
According to Kivijärvi, reasons for the change in women’s values can be found, for example, in the increase in women’s education level and the fact that women and men apply to different fields of education.
Social media may affect value differences
Harvard University the youth survey published in the spring according to the main news source for young men in the US is YouTube. More than 30 percent of respondents got their news from there. The main news sources for young women were Instagram and Tiktok.
No similar figures are available from Finland on gender differences in the use of different social media and news channels.
However, Kivijärvi believes that the differences are similar to those in the United States. According to him, the role of social media in value differences between the sexes should be considered.
– The platforms themselves are to some extent gendered and based on the fact that different types of people are sold different contents.