In a world where Taylor Swift’s reinvention is at the forefront of most headlines, we are left to wonder why we care. News stories over the years have gradually become dumbed down to Kylie’s latest scandalous outfit or the hottest celebrity feuds. Reality T.V. keeps us entertained daily and chances are, most households you walk into keep these talentless people on the screen to remind themselves that even the rich and famous do mundane things like them. We don’t really think about it when we’re scrolling on Buzzfeed or flipping through channels until we hit a real news story like North Korea’s missile tests. Only then, does reality hit and fear sinks in. The world that we so desperately try to escape through this happy and meaningless content comes into focus in these fleeting moments of real coverage. However, our world is so dark and unpredictable nowadays that perhaps we need the Kardashians or Trump’s ridiculous hair to make us forget some morbid realities. But before a time with fake butts and fake news, generations either lived in a world free of evil or in blissful ignorance.
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My father is a baby boomer. While telling me about his childhood growing up in Long Island, I was envious of how simple and carefree it sounded. A time before phones, iPads, laptops, etc. A time where children were allowed to be children—innocent and only fearing monsters under their beds. Now we send children into the world like young men going to war. I remember fearing for terrorism as a child and all the scary realities most of our parents were shielded from. It is so heartbreaking that we have to fear the city, the movies, school, or any place tainted with terror—places that used to provide such joy and comfort. However, then when I reflect over our parents and grandparents generation, I wonder if all these terrible things existed; however, they just believed it hadn’t because there was no instantaneous forms of media to convey the news. Therefore, in that way, they were blissfully ignorant as are we when we choose to hide within the meaningless content of the day. Perhaps technology and the empty media that comes with it is our way of coping with our realities. The millennial generation gets a lot of hate in all aspects especially our use of technology in media. While you could say the type of content we produce speaks volumes on the society we’ve become but perhaps we’re not so dumb at all—perhaps we’re just trying to stay positive in a world surrounded with negativity.
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