NEW YORK TIMES columnist Thomas Friedman has been on a college tour, and he concludes that today's college students (whom he dubs Generation Q) are too quiet."Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms," he writes. "Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall."
He says that you guys spend way too much time in virtual worlds - Internet, text messaging, video games, etc - and not enough time caring about the world.
Are you guys really apathetic slackers or is he just a Baby Boomer whiner still holding on to the 60's?
14 comments:
He's right. People are lazy. We all boast our lack of time due to intense college courses and demanding job schedules, and yet we still have time to surf facebook and join groups like, "I love college, but I miss my dog." Something doesn't make sense here.
I feel like our generations are changing with the technology. The baby boomer generation had different technology and media outlets, so they interacted differently with other people. I have been a registered voter since I turned 18 and am up on current events and world issues. At this very point and time, our generation is not directly affected by many world issues. We are not being drafted into a war like Friedman's generation was and we are not fighting for severe human rights issues like they were in the 60s. I feel like when an issue as serious as a war directly affects our generation or the draft is reinstated, then we will start gather again like we used too.
I can relate to this article a lot. I do with his point of view, but some things aren't exactly how they seem.
I find that we won't answer some questions that insult our intelligence; questions that are so obvious that even the raise of a hand is too much effort to put into. We are lazy, and we don't want to go out of our own ways, especially to people who don't really matter(matter as in, is able to create some kind of change with our opinions.) (teachers, sadly.)
*agree.
I'd say we are apathetic slackers.
I think our generation spends way too much time on the internet and social networking sites have started to get rid of the idea of people meeting together face-to-face. It's true that more people on a global scale can join a group on facebook, but are the creators of the 500th "save darfur" group actually doing anything about it?
I agree, we're the slacker generation. In the sixties and seventies, when young people had a problem with the government, they would speak out. Protest. Now it seems that all we think is "Oh well. Nothing we can really do about it" and complain while not making any effort to change what's around us.
We hold so much power to change things, yet don't use it to our full extent. If it doesn't involve something as easy as a click of a mouse, it's too much work.
Yeah, I think the internet makes it too easy for people to believe that they are actually making a difference. When someone joins a group they might think that this is how this generation becomes part of the solution to a problem, although this is probably not the case. Still though, these groups might actually inspire some kids who realize they're not making a difference.
Hmmm. I wonder. Would this article have reached me if it weren't for the internet? Probably not. He should really take time and think about how much information the digital world does give us. Sure, creating movements in the physical sense would be great! But this day and age, I think the digital world has more of an impact on how we think and things we do. It's how our generations communicates, and it won't change no matter who complains about it.
Yeah, he's right. I waste far too much time online.. I could be out there starting a revolution!
This must mean Thomas Friedman has a facebook account...
On one hand, I could see where the argument would definitely have some ground, since I know many people who could care less about activism... I mean, it's pretty sad when you have to explain to a college junior who Barack Obama is.
But on the other hand, haven't we been somewhat trained to not speak out? I know I surely wouldn't want to be tasered for expressing my opinions...
I don't think that we're all lazy slackers. Some of us are, but not all of us.
I think that the real problem is that we don't even really know where to start. In the 60's, the atmosphere was one of revolution, and it was much simpler to get involved. That generation used the tools most available to them - their voices and their bodies - while our generation uses the tools most readily available to us - the computer and the internet. It's just that our tools, for how advanced and fancy they are, aren't really as effective as theirs.
It is not the technology that makes people apathetic. Sites like facebook have enormous potential for organizing. The fact that so many people are connected allows messages to spread fast.
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