It has come to my attention that there are very few fellow college students who are aware of the situation currently happening in Syria. Instead of talking about the possible strike and the impacts that that could have on the U.S. and Middle East, students are spending their time talking about Miley Cyrus’ “twerking” and the impact that has caused.
The lack of global awareness somewhat makes me want to give up on our generation. Since when has a celebrity’s butt movements been worthy of more coverage than a security crisis causing mass amount of death?
If we consider college a time to improve our intellect and intelligence, we are clearly as a collective doing something wrong.
Why does our generation strive to talk more about the Kardashians than the Kennedys? What is it about being active in celebrity culture that we find much more fascinating than being active in politics?
During the Vietnam War college students on a mass level took a very active and vocal role in fighting against the war, involving themselves in politics. Why is our generation not as passionate about taking a stand (whether positive or negative) with this potential war?
Does our generation simply not care or is there an underlying reason?
With new standardized tests, rise of the extremely competitive job market (including parents losing their jobs) and the rise of new technologies, there has been an increase of stress on our generation.
Perhaps teens and young adults turn to celebrity gossip, rather than events that are more demanding of our attention, in order to forget their own stress and live the life of the celebrities.
One would think that with new forms for media, young adults would be more active within politics and current events, however new technologies result in new stresses. This causes college students and other teens to want to forget their own anxieties and live the “glamorous” life of the celebrities.
In order for us to be informed and for changes to be made, we must accept the fact that we are human and have anxieties. We then must realize that blinding ourselves to the realities of the world will not help them go away. Rather we must stay informed and active in order to make a change in the world. It may be counterintuitive, but by taking action and making our voices heard we can reduce our stress in life.
We can make a change by following what is happening in Syria and voicing our opinion, not by watching endless remix videos of Miley Cyrus twerking.