Susan Lampert Smith begins by blaming modern technology and TV shows for students' lack of civil involvement. I don't quite understand. With new technology it is easier to schedule around entertainment; our little worlds of personal electronics let us run things on our own time. Also, cell phones and other communications technologies can help organize large groups of people, as we saw in the mass twittering phenomena of the most recent election. If today's students really cared about something, technology would not be a deciding force to stop them.
"They care--but not that much." sums up, I think, a more plausible argument for the change in protests. Fewer people have personal connections to this war than did to the Vietnam war. Advances in technology should be giving us even more information, understanding, and cause for protest, but we have so little personal information that it does not make up the difference. To protest effectively, people have to make sacrifices ("Grey's Anatomy" is a pretty mild one), and to be willing to do that, they need to have a personal connection that makes it not just worth it, but necessary and meaningful.
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I agree that people need personal connections to things to make them seem necessary and meaningful, and that's definitely why people have that semi-apathetic attitude. However, I think that while technology should be making it easier for people to organize events and such for their causes, it's also helping them ignore important issues in favor of texting their BFF, Jill's or watching Youtube videos. The personal connection that they could have made with a serious issue has instead been made with something not so serious, thus making current technology a blessing and a curse.
ReplyDeleteOk, this is a response to your comment on my blog, but this isn't facebook so it won't tell you if I comment on my own blog and that would defeat the purpose.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I loved college lit. I would love to take it again! Was there different curriculum the second time? The disscusions were definitely the best part of that class (or any class for that matter).