Is media and technology causing Americans to become more dumb? This is the very controversial question many have been asking. So, is it true?
Personally, I do not agree with this. We have used technology to make our lives a lot easier; however, it is not to blame. Americans still have to go to school and learn the same things that people have been taught for years. So how is the media and technology to blame? That is a question I would love someone to answer for me. How is it really to blame? I was taught the same fourth grade history facts as every other American student. We still learn the things we need to know to become educated, but now we have the luxury of typing a question into Google and having hundreds of links and articles to help us research what we want to find out instead of having to spend hours in a library reading books. We still learn the same facts, just faster. This might make us lazier, but how does it make us less smart than our older generations?
Many may argue that people know more about what the Kardashian’s are doing that what is going on in the political debates and the upcoming election. I know this to be true, but if we didn’t have the Kardashian’s people would be keeping up with the stats of their favorite baseball or football team or whatever else they find interesting. Everyone has their own interests and media helps that. It gives us more things to be interested in. We have E! News now, but we also have CNN. The media gives us so many options and new things to become infatuated with. So how does that make us dumb? Just because certain people don’t keep up with the news and what is going on in the world doesn’t make them dumb. They choose to watch E! or HGTV instead of Anderson Cooper or other news broadcasts. You can’t force them to know everything It is their free will to watch whatever they want to. That doesn’t make them less educated.
Jaywalking shows the people that don’t know as many facts as others and try and be funny. If Jay Leno came up to you on the street would you answer correctly or act funny and answer wrong for a chance of maybe getting on his show? I realize some of those people really might not know the answer, but I can’t help but think that some just want attention. How many of you could watch every Jaywalking episode or even Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader and get every question right? I know I am only nineteen years old but fifth grade was a long time ago! Some of those questions are really hard! So is media to blame for me forgetting? Did reading articles on the internet help me forget? I don’t think so.
This was great! I think you are right on. I do not know many dates or facts or even names from history, but if I didn't have the current media options like E! News or Chelsea Lately I still wouldn't be sitting by an oil lamp reading my husband's history books. I fill my time with otherwise...my house would be cleaner, the laundry would always be caught up, but I doubt my frame of reference of elementary history facts would be any more developed.
ReplyDeleteI agree! That was the point I was trying to make. I don't see how the media is really hurting us. People will always follow what they are interested in and the media just gives us more options.
DeleteHey Ash, the point is, and I'd love to elaborate more, but you ask twice how is Media to blame?, well, personally I do agree it is... you say people will always follow what they are interested in, well BEFORE media, people were interested in living(providing their own lives by their own means) can you sustain yourself without media? without electricity? can you become the hunter/gatherer that humans were originally created as?? no one ever said that media made people "dumb", but how about "ignorant", people today, your age, are completely unaware of "life" without such "options", my point is, we went so long without "media", do we REALLY have to live our lives WITH it to be happier? please... if Americans were happy it would be obvious, we are struggling as a people trying to accept into our lives this "new life". it's not your fault so don't beat yourself up about being born into a time that you can't control anything. for the most part, we are a slave of the "system" (economic/judicial/gov't) and MEDIA is used to control us... i'm really sorry you don't see it for what it truly is, yes, the internet is a wonderful resource of information that IS a lot "easier" to access than library books that our elders had to read for knowledge, but media is not just about the internet, it's about the filth and garbage being aired every second on television(soap operas/reality shows/dramas/"sex sells"... if people were really happy then why would they need to fantasize and compare their lives to some images on an LCD screen? why not focus more inside ourselves than try to compete with someone we will never meet. i appreciate your topic and the fact that what we said in class the other day moved your spirit, and hey! just think... if it wasn't for "media", no one would have ever heard your opinion. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteHey Ash, just stoppin by again, and i'm kinda mad... for some reason the comment that i left last week while my group partner, Alex Bailey was here, and we were reading/discussin the blogs, is not here! well, i'll try to remember what i said! I know that she had pointed out that I seemed a little rough the way i wrote what i did, well i just wanted to make it clear, i was not trying to be so harsh, i do not consider myself in any way better than anyone, because i'm guilty of almost every "sin" i "preach" about... i was truly being sincere in my thanking you for writing! write some more!
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