PHOTO CREDITS: KARINA MARTINEZ
BY SABRINA VICTOR
According to the New York Times, an American child is six times more likely to know who won American Idol than the name of the Speaker of the House. Since 2008, SAT reading and writing scores have dropped significantly and, nowadays, some kids claim to not even know how to utilize a calculator. These sad facts serve as an indicator of the ignorant generation American society has bred. The ignorance that has polarized students of the last decade can be attributed to a lack of culture, awareness, education, and most importantly, the development of technology.
American children have been infected by the rampant fever of poor behavior. As Americans, we stress on each child having the independence and freedom to be their own individuals. However, our principles have turned to bite us in the back. American kids use there “individualistic freedom” as an excuse to have little respect for both their parents and other authority. We all see those kids yelling at their parents in public places, begging for a new phone or whining about not being able to go to a party. To make it even worse, kids don’t seem to be embarrassed by the way they treat their parents, which mean they have no problem disrespecting other authoritative figures, including school officials. The idea of independence has also caused American children to acquire both a poor sense of responsibility and a poor work ethic, meaning they don’t have the skills to have a great career and success in the future. Instead, American kids have been heavily influenced by popular entertainment and would rather be “rebellious”. The lack of culture and respect has caused American students to easily fall prey to new fads and peer pressure.
Students have neglected to learn about current events and significant information in the world around them. Instead of spending 8 hours in front of the screen researching relevant information, they spend their time on celebrity gossip sites that educate them about Nicki Minaj’s best physical assets or Kourtney Kardashian’s pregnancy. Students don’t even know about the threat ISIS is currently posing to our world or the political uprisings occurring in the Middle East.
American children have become dumber. The fact of the matter is the American education system is set up to “dumb down” for underachievers rather than to raise expectations of performance. An accumulation of ignorance has led to the increase of stupidity amongst the latest generation. According to the Washington Post, college professors have complained that students come out of high school knowing less and less each year. They fail to be able to grasp the information and concepts taught at the collegiate level. Years of dumbing down high school curriculum has created a new level of ignorance that, if not confronted, will possibly lead to the downfall of this generation.
Technology has advanced over the past decade with the primary purpose to liberate us from having to perform time-consuming tasks and make our lives a little easier. Of course, the ultimate purpose was reached, but for American kids, it has liberated them a bit too much. Communication is so easy that, according to the Wall Street Journal, the average kid sends and receives an average of 3,339 texts per month. Texting has become so easy that kids don’t even want to hang out with another to shoot some hoops or attend a football game, perfectly content in their digital world. The more kids use technology in order to communicate, the more they are alone. According to the Washington Post, studies have shown the more kids use technology, the more vulnerable they are to depression. The addiction to technology has set up the stage for addictive behavior, which has led to low attention and feedback spans. The problem is so major that most children can’t even keep a five-minute long conversation, since kids are less and less willing to engage with their loved ones and world at large. If they have something important to say, they will simply shoot a text instead of verbally talking to their parents. As far as research goes, instead of taking the time to search an encyclopedia or dictionary to look up information, students would rather just type it into Google. Studies from Princeton University have shown that the process of actually looking up information in a book helps retain the information better. This strips kids of the ability to process information and stimulates attention deficit disorder. All these problems stemmed from technology will eventually affect how our children make crucial decisions.
The ignorance of today’s generation has been due to a lack of culture, respect, and knowledge as well as technology. If this ignorance continues, there will no hope for our future generation. It is time that the older generation puts the time and effort into helping kids gain the ability to learn and care for the world around them.
