Survey
Listen to where youth feel most disconnected, and which pressures make authentic connection hardest.
Isolated Together · 2026
The Youth Speak Forum
Official Youth Speak Forum website and registration by AIESEC. Digitally connected, yet increasingly alone: this summit explores how to rebuild authentic bonds with ourselves, each other, and our communities in a digital age.
Youth Speak Forum: from digital noise to authentic connection.
01 · The theme
Isolated Together.
Rebuilding Connection in a Digital Age
Youth Speak Forum is an AIESEC initiative. When we analyzed the survey results, mental health emerged as the dominant concern at 78.3%, nearly double any other topic. Treating it alone risked feeling overdone. Looking closer, every other concern pointed to the same underlying crisis: disconnection.
We live surrounded by digital connections (notifications, social media, messages), yet feel lonelier, more insecure, and more divided than ever. We are “isolated together”: physically close to technology, but emotionally distant from one another.
This summit explores how to rebuild real bonds with ourselves, with each other, and with our communities in an age dominated by the digital.
02 · How it works
From survey insight to real connection.
Forum
Bring young people and decision-makers together to rebuild bonds across screens, generations, and communities.
Projects
Turn that dialogue into collaborations that create belonging, trust, and collective action offline and online.
03 · The cycle
One year. One continuous feedback loop.
Survey, forum and projects feed new insight about disconnection, and that insight shapes the next cycle of listening, dialogue, and action toward authentic connection.
Survey
Forum
Projects
New insight
04 · Who rebuilds connection
The people who close the distance.
Young people
Mental health advocates
Educators
Community organizers
NGOs
Universities
Decision-makers
Partners
05 · What we found
Every concern points back to disconnection.
Mental health leads at 78.3%, nearly double any other topic, and the rest of the survey maps the same crisis from different angles.
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78.3%
Mental health
The central symptom of a society that is increasingly connected digitally, yet increasingly alone in reality.
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60.4%
Jobs & unemployment
Economic uncertainty isolates people from social roles and from belonging to a productive community.
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59.9%
Fake news & misinformation
Social media, designed to connect us, polarizes us into separate information bubbles.
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43.2% / 42.4%
Social divisions & inequality
Technology often amplifies distance between groups, generations, and social classes.
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20.1%
Climate change
Climate anxiety often stems from individual powerlessness and a lack of real collective action.
06 · FAQ
What is the Youth Speak Forum?
What is the Youth Speak Forum?
Youth Speak Forum is an official AIESEC youth summit that connects young people with partners, universities, NGOs, and decision-makers. Through surveys, forums, and projects, it turns youth perspectives into collective action. Visit the official Youth Speak Forum homepage.
What is the Youth Speak Forum theme?
The current Youth Speak Forum theme is Isolated Together: Rebuilding Connection in a Digital Age. It explores how digital life can leave people connected online yet emotionally distant, and how to rebuild authentic bonds.
How do I register for Youth Speak Forum?
Open the Youth Speak Forum delegate registration page to apply. For partnership inquiries, use the partner form on this site. Email the Youth Speak Forum team with questions.
Where is the official Youth Speak Forum website?
This page is the official Youth Speak Forum website for this edition. Use it for theme details, survey findings, and delegate registration.
Isolated Together
Help rebuild authentic connection.
Join Youth Speak Forum to explore how we reconnect with ourselves, each other, and our communities beyond the digital noise.
