Monday, January 10, 2011

Shallow Fountain of Youth








WTF

Do Young People Really Care?

As I sit at my computer screen with all the most essential tools of youth spread out before me, facebook, twitter etc., I think about what to say that will evoke a response from my adoring audience; what words of wisdom will earn me the coveted smiley face or even dare I hope, an lol! We can immediately dispense with any topics relating to current events, the state of our economy, or an upcoming election! If a post does not contain a video of someone falling from a table or a stool in slow motion, or maybe a little misogynist humor to get the juices flowing I’m not interested. We all have that one friend with an overactive political voice and an “opinion” on the way the country is and should be run and have seen his facebook page for the ghost town and cautionary tale it is. Not a “like it” to his/her name. However on the other end of the social network spectrum are the E-butterflies who post a minute by minute report of their daily lives and we sit raptly by as we “follow” them scratch every itch. These butterflies are the people we are proud to call our friends.

I pose the question: is my experience simply anecdotal? Is it simply my social circle and those in our proximity that tend to shy away from substantive discussion and intellectual exchange? Or am I just looking for political discussions on the wrong medium, facebook and twitter? I would put forward a hypothesis that this online trend toward hollow pursuits is not simply anecdotal but a telling narrative of an uninterested generation.

Before I get chased out of “youngstown”, USA for calling the youth of today air heads let me clarify. I don’t mean to say that young people in this day and age do not have the capacity to contribute to substantive issues; I am simply pointing out they don’t care to exert themselves on that score. Today I will explore two possible explanations that, in my humble opinion, might be at the root of this phenomenon.

The first is that, as opposed to the youth of yesteryear, the media has had an inordinate influence on the newer generations; these outlets are namely: television, music, radio and the Internet. From an early age we learned from colorful characters how to count and say our abc’s. Then in adolescent years learned how life is from Television shows, movies and catchy tunes that helped us through our awkward years. These media outlets seem to mirror humanity for us all to emulate painting a caricatured picture of youth. The messages passed along by these proliferators of cultural stereotypes show young people a picture of the modern young man and woman. Aspiring to make beaucoup bucks during the day working for a corporation then partying it up chasing women/men and having the time of their lives at night. These stars with whom youth resonate most, reality stars, rock stars and actors increasingly portray this one dimensional wealthy carefree socialite as the American dream. The dreams of our current generation can best be typified by current flavor of the month reality series Jersey Shore; keeping up with the dramatic lives of spoiled oversexed young adults whose biggest concern are who is getting is whose pants. With this fun house mirror image of youth is it any wonder that pictures of parties, fashion, fun times and funnier pictures dominate any substantive issues?

Now that I have firmly anchored my credibility by attacking one of our most beloved institutions, the media, let me press on to attack our much beloved rules of governance. The second issue that lends to youthful silence on matters of import, is the double talk built into our system of governance. On the one hand young people are the lifeblood of our nation, the ones who populate our armed services and drive out economy; and on the other they should defer to the wisdom of age. An 18 year old man or woman can sign up for the military to die for what they believe in however they can’t take a sip of alcohol or run for office. Current conventional wisdom even describes the youth vote as almost an afterthought. So much so that politicians can breathe a sigh of relief on the campaign trail when it comes to matters important to youth! No one will hound them on the increasing rates of college tuition, usurious student loan and credit card programs, or health care for students. Furthermore once elected they don’t have to answer for the decisions they make on our account. It’s little wonder that youth could care less about who is in office seeing as neither democrat’s nor republican’s care to represent their best interests. Campaign managers sometimes sit in their headquarters scratching their heads wondering why these kids don’t vote! This might be a novel idea, but seeing as how young people’s lives affected by the role of government mightn’t they receive some measure of representation in said system. Spoken plainly, if we have 18 and 20 year olds dying in war we should have 18 and 20 year old represented in some facet of the congress that made that decision to send them to fight for their country.

With all that being said however and the media’s role as the pied piper of Hamlin revealed, can young people awaken from their slumber? Can we as a youth culture emerge from the dark and dingy strobe lit nightclubs find our voices and take our rightful places in the light of day? More importantly do we want to? To end on a positive note, I have seen the positive impact young people can have on their communities and the truly insightful ideas that can be generated by a room full of idealistic college students. My hope is that the individual care and insightfulness I know young people possess in spades becomes more than an afterthought and instead flowers into one of the cornerstones of the youth culture of tomorrow.


1 comment:

  1. the young care but not enough in my opinion...really sad, especially after eras like the 60s and 70s where folks fought for some much...nowadays, its all about me and nobody else sadly...

    good post

    ReplyDelete