Do you think the youth in our generation are underinformed?

Question

about topics like sex trafficking, poverty, and AIDS, and too involved with themselves and their own interests?

Answer 1

The youth in our generation are impoverished in areas of moral and cognitive development, so even though they are bombarded with information...they are incapacitated to do anything with it.

We're in trouble. No doubt about it.

Answer 2

Perhaps not 'underinformed' but maybe more like 'overinformed'. I say this because the internet in it's existence has changed how people communicate, learn and view the world around them.

In that, the internet, for all it's wonderful positive input, it also has that darker side where some people can misinform the populace through slipping in wrong information or leaving out truth.

In the end I believe that the young people of today will learn to overcome and handle the darker side and grow with knowledge that is far easier to access now than every before.

Answer 3

Yes Patagonia, I do.

Your generation seems to lack a great deal of what was once called common knowledge. I have been around twenty, and even thirty year olds who didn't know if the Earth went around the sun, or the sun the Earth --they weren't sure which came first, the Revolutionary or the Civil War. They couldn't name the last three president of the US. They don't understand that medical science and all its advances are based on an understanding of evolution.

The topics you mention are to me somewhat important, but if you lack basic knowledge about the world around you, how can you take responsibility for it when it comes your turn to serve it; make no mistakes, you will be asked to
become part of the political process, or you will ultimately trelegate it to a dictator.

And given the intellectual laziness I see, I have a feeling that day may already be here.

You can change it. Turn off the tube, read some real books(not best sellers), become active in service to your community. Wake up and grow up... it's really important.

Answer 4

I do not think the youth are disproportionally underinformed. I believe all generations are underinformed on varous topics. In fact, I would argue that the youth have greater access to information than any generation in history. The information is simply not utilized for various reason including vanity as you had mentioned.

Answer 5

I don't believe that youth today are underinformed about any topic. I believe that they, just like all generations, believe that they can't be touched by problems such as AIDS/ HIV, etc. They are very much wrapped up in themselves. They have an "I am the only one that matters and nothing can hurt me" attitude. I was a RN in the Neuroscience ICU and have seen my share of head injured teens and young adults, some of whom died from their injuries, all because they couldn't be bothered to wear a seatbelt. The sight of their friends dying or the knowledge of someone being killed because of their unwillingness to buckle up, doesn't seem to matter. I still see, on a daily basis, many teenagers and young adults not buckled up or not wearing their seatbelt correctly. Sorry for the rant, but it upsets me so!

Answer 6

There's no excuse that they should be uninformed; unless it's that everyone in inundated with news 24/7.
Most are so involved with their own little circle that they don't care anyway. Read questions on this site, or myspace for a few hours and you will find an amazing amount of semi-literate uneducated minors are too lazy to even use spell check.
When I read some applications at work, I am amazed that they got through 8th grade, much less, high school. Then they wonder why they are rejected.
They don't care about anything unless it threatens their small world. They take chances and aren't prepared for the consequences of drinking, drugs, pregnancy and STD's

Answer 7

I think that most of the youth of any generation are under-informed about the world at large. It's part and parcel of being a teenager to be self-involved. I know I couldn't understand why my parents had to watch the news every night when I was a teen. I'm 52. My sons are now grown, but they weren't into watching the news either. Though my older son was fairly well informed, even as a teen. And my younger son spent a week every summer in Delaware with Habitat for Humanity. You better believe that opened his eyes to what real poverty is all about. They both participated in soup kitchens and food drives. I think it's up to the adults to provide our youth with hands-on opportunities that will open their eyes to the broader world issues.

Answer 8

I think this is a double-edged sword; I think kids in our generation have much more opportunity to learn a lot more about their world and society. However, things like the Internet, TV, video games, cell phones, the media in general, have all upped the ante and are now providing more distractions than ever to counter that easier access to knowledge. Give or take, I think it's about the same balance; it's always the choice of the youth whether to give into it, and I think it's safe to say youths of every generation get very self-involved. That's why now, you have self-involved parents who shun charities and teach their kids to look out for number one. We only know what our parents have taught us, and I don't see how on a widespread basis, the country/world has any right to complain about it. Our parents' generation is just as, if not more, self-involved. It's our parents messing up the world right now, not us.

Basically I think the balance hasn't changed, but it's at a more high-frequency level. It's louder now.

Answer 9

Many of the youth of today are very underinformed. However, don't blame our schools or even parents. There is definitely a lack of motivation on the parts of students to join the real world. I offered my students access to the newspaper and their only interest was in the want ads and cartoon sections. Teachers are trying to gain the interest of students but it's up to students to want to learn.

Answer 10

If you listen to polls and news reports the impression is not only are our youth underinformed but ignorant to an extreme. Actually our youth of today are remarkable. I find young people to be intelligent, informed and ready to take on the challenges of today and tomorrow. I'm proud of them.

Answer 11

The short answers is yes. The main reason is they receive most of their information in 30 second clips (because they are all supposed to be afflicted with short attention span) so they receive isolated pieces of information that lack context and any idea of how it affect them or their world. A more relevent cause is that most sources of information aren't trying to put out balanced information. Most sources (media of every kind, political groups, etc.) are only putting out information that supports their own agenda and are not even trying to put it within context of the discussion. The youth of the world aren't blind to this and they just turn it off. Without many sources of reliable, balanced information put into context it isn't surprising how uninformed the youth of the world are today.