So anyway...I came across a Yahoo! article yesterday that talked about a major generation gap being exposed. How do you expose that kind of thing in this day & age? Through social media, of course!
After reading that article, I got really worked up. So, I'm going to jump on my soapbox about it. I'm hoping I don't sound like the cranky old lady in her porch rocker shaking her fist at the kids & yelling, "GET OFF MY LAWN! AND GET A HAIRCUT!" But, that might be how this goes. I'm going to try not to show too much of my age, but I apologize if I show too much.
Dylan Stableford, of The Cutline on Yahoo! News, has this amazing & frightening article about "kids these days". * read article here * Twitter totally exposed how out-of-touch with important history & pop culture young adults & teens are right now. They are so much into the here-and-now that they have no idea where much of the stuff they know came from. The when, why & how are all missing. They just figure it appeared & they got to witness this birth of greatness without any understanding at all.
When there are people openly putting out there how ignorant they are in today's society (which is not difficult with Facebook & Twitter), it's a sad wake up call that there is a major disconnect in a lot of areas & aspects of society.
~ When there's a slew of tweets & posts questioning who Paul McCartney is, but you are listening to the comeback of music from the Beatles - disconnect.
~ When you idolize & listen to about anything Ryan Seacrest tells you because he's everywhere, and you don't realize one of his idols is Dick Clark, THEN question who Dick Clark is - disconnect.
~ When you recite a quote in the midst of hate & prejudice wars by saying, "Can't we all just get along?", yet you question who Rodney King was & how history surrounds that name - disconnect.
~ When you can sing songs from GLEE & then question why your parents & grandparents are singing along because you didn't know there was such a thing as Journey or Bee-Gees - disconnect.
~ When there is a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of a major event in history & you question the reality of the Titanic because you only saw it thru Hollywood's eyes - disconnect.
People...this is a real issue. I wish it was joke, or some kind of spoof. It's not. Ashton Kutcher is not going to jump out of a wall to tell you this is a prank. It's not.
Sometime later I will have another soapbox to get on about education, but I want to focus on one specific required course of study. It's the history/social studies portion. There's a reason we are forced to take these classes. I see it now, as an adult. The "blah-blah" of stuff repeating itself or something didn't really sink in at that point when I was in school. But...we are doomed to have history repeat itself if we don't learn what's going on around us. Guess what? What is now "history" was actually "pop culture" at some point in time. Even music.
So this begs me to question the curriculum being taught today. Social Studies classes need to get on the ball. There is so much being added to the timeline (the actual timeline, not Facebook's) all of the time. It's not getting shorter. But maybe there needs to be this in music classes, too. I got to experience a little bit of it while I was in high school choir. I know that classes like this do exist, but on an elective level. When "kids these days" are singing their songs that were inspired by someone they refuse to know, how do they really understand where that song came from? There is such a lack of originality to music right now, and the great stuff is now called "oldies". That pains me to say since some of the music I grew up with & listened to is now called "classic". Ugh! But it's being covered by today's artists...and this new generation has no idea it was covered. They think this music is original.
Right now, society & pop culture is moving so quickly that it's really hard to keep up. For anyone. Especially for the flash-in-the-pan memory of the Millennials. They believe they keep up, and all of the media-based multitasking is what keeps them going. There is no roots into why they are into what they are. They think they understand...and they don't. But they truly believe they know it all.
OK...I know that comes with the age of being in your teens & 20's, but it is at an alarming rate right now. When there are living legends doing something big, or are dying off, or when there is a movie made about something in history...the young'uns remain clueless. And not in the "aren't they cute for not getting it" sense, but a frightening cluelessness.
So, how do we get past this? Does it stop? Or is everything, good or bad, doomed to repeat itself out of sheer ignorance of important happenings & people?
Oh, and if you don't know what the event or person is about...try either looking it up or asking someone face-to-face first instead of sharing your ignorance on history. That's scary to openly see what direction the world is heading...
Something to think on.
Stay tuned...
God Bless, AM~Erica
I've noticed this, and thought it very sad. Since we both have a love of history, Michelle and I are trying to raise our children with a sense of it.
ReplyDeleteContext is extremely important, and figures large in any discussion about event prior to, say, last week. The Titanic didn't just sink because of an iceberg: an attitude of arrogance and complacency preceded the sinking, a great awakening followed. It makes discussions last a long while, but we've learned to get the salient points in before the kids check out (mostly.)
I love your blog. Initiative & desire to seek info is critical to instill in our kids. While I agree our education system can be improved, it takes a village to raise our kiddos. Modeling behaviors such as reading for knowledge & not only entertainment is a powerful tool. These are things I think of when seeing this kind of ignorance or lack of history.
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